After months of industrial strike, characterized by threats, intimidation and salary stoppage, there appears to be a truce between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) as some of the major demands of the university teachers have been met.
Top on the list is the decision by the Federal Government to exempt them from the contentions Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), a payment platform the union insisted would not serve the interest of their members.
Reading out the communique at the end of a seven-hour negotiation with ASUU members in Abuja, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, said the government also agreed to ASUU’s demand to pay their members’ salary arrears from February to June through the old salary payment platform, Government Integrated Financial and Management Information System.
The government also offered to raise the Earned Allowances to university staff from N30bn to N35bn and the revitalization fund from N20bn to N25bn.
The breakthrough in negotiations is expected to end the eight-month strike embarked on by the university lecturers.
Details later…
