The National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) leadership has demanded that Professor Tahir Mamman, the Minister of Education, act quickly to include their members in the Federal Government’s proposal to reimburse withheld salaries to a single union based at a university.
The union had claimed that the federal government was deducting more than five months’ worth of its members’ pay.
NAAT stated the announcement of the proposal to pay only one university-based union is contradictory to the information the Minister of Education presented to all the unions in the sector at the high-level stakeholders meeting held recently at the National Universities Commission.
“We find it very difficult to reconcile the minister’s pronouncement with the Federal Government’s action to pay the withheld salaries to members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) exclusively, to the exclusion of other members of our union which is unfair and just.”
The union continued, “The Federal Government’s persistent failure to honor and implement agreements freely entered through collective bargaining was what initially led the unions in the university sector to embark on the strike action. Furthermore, the laboratory/workshop and studio work lost during the strike has been covered by academic technologists as students had since graduated and some completed the mandatory work. Minister Sir, it is pertinent to draw your attention to the current economic hardship being experienced by Nigerians, including our members, occasioned by the removal of petroleum subsidy, which has made life very unbearable due to the high cost of living combined with the currency’s depreciation, rendering the salaries of workers with little or no value.
The recent 16-point agreement freely signed by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NIC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) is one of these agreements. Other Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) signed by our union and the Federal Government are also included in this list; their non-implementation has made an already precarious situation worse.
As stated in the Memorandum of Understanding between NAAT and the Federal Government on August 17, 2022, “We, strongly appeal to the minister to look at the plight of our members and expeditiously pay the over five-month withheld salaries, implement the 25 percent and 35 percent approved salary increase with arrears, and release the arrears of earned allowances of NAAT members.”
The union expressed its appreciation for President Bola Tinubu’s in redards to the president’s N630 billion TETFund intervention, a good work in reorienting the nation toward economic growth and prosperity through the “Renewed Hope” agenda and his dedication to improving the educational sector through the development of infrastructure and human capital.