Salary Arrears: FG Mulls Half Payment For SSANU, NASU Members
The Federal Government members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) will get half of their withheld salaries if President Ahmed Tinubu approves the payment.
RECALL (Link) that in March, SSANU and NASU members embarked on a one-week warning strike to protest their withheld salaries by the federal government.
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The two unions were aggrieved that the federal government paid withheld salaries to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) while neglecting the non-academic unions.
But the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman who was speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Wednesday, said the government is doing everything possible to bring relief to the two unions.
He, however, noted that members of the SSANU and NASU were not on strike for the same period in 2022 as their academic counterparts.
“There is a court judgment on no work, no pay. ASUU getting four months’ pay was actually a discretion and decision on the part of the president. So, it doesn’t automatically transfer (to NASU and SSANU) but the matter is under consideration.
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“And in any case, the non-academic staff, they were not on strike for the same period with the academic staff — about four months or so. So, if they are getting payment, it is going to be half of that (payment), if the President follows his precedent with the academic staff,” he said.
While speaking on the timeline for the payment, the minister said, “I don’t think it is safe to put a time on it but it’s safer to say that we are on it and we are pushing.”
The minister clarified that there was no distribution on the part of the federal government between the academic staff and the non-academic staff as alleged by NASU and SSANU members.
“That cannot be right. There is no rating. These are people working in the same terrain. They are doing different things, but all working towards the same goal.
“I believe what happened was a communication problem. It wasn’t deliberate to exclude them from that benefit,” he said.
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