The National Industrial
Court has upheld the Federal Government’s no-work-no-pay rule against the
Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). The court held that the rule,
which was enforced by the government when ASUU went on strike last year was
completely legal.
According to the
judgment delivered by the President of the Court, Justice Benedict Kanyip, it
is within the right of the FG to withhold salaries for staff who go on strike.
However, the court found
that it is against University Autonomy for the Federal Government to impose the
Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) as a payment
platform on members of ASUU.
It stated that they have
the right to determine how their salaries should be paid.
The Minister of
Education at the time of the strike, Adamu Adamu, stated on a number of
occasions that the FG was firm on the rule and had no plans to pay salaries to
the members of the union for the period when they were on strike, February 14
to October 7, 2022.
“The Federal Government is not rescinding the no work- no pay
decision. The Federal Government has taken the decision that it will not pay
whoever goes on strike. If they call the strike off today, they will be losing
7 months of pay,” Adamu said in September last year.
Upon the Union’s
continued demand for the payment of their salaries, the FG dragged ASUU to the
National Industrial Court.
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