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The Congress of University Academics has voiced its displeasure with the Federal Government, particularly the Ministry of Labour and Employment, over the failure to pay the withheld salaries of its members “even when the government knew that the union did not call for strike action and its members were not involved in the strike action that lasted for eight months and which shut down the university system nationwide.”
The Academic Staff Union of Universities went on an eight-month strike between February and October 2022. On Tuesday, CONUA issued a statement, which was signed by its National President, Secretary, and Publicity Secretary, Drs. Niyi Sunmonu, Henry Oripeloye, and Ernest Nwoke.
The new union of lecturers thereby viewed to sue FG for withholding its members’ salaries.
Part of the statement said, “CONUA formally informed the Federal Government of its non-participation in the strike in a letter issued to the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, in April 2022.
We made it clear in the letter that because CONUA was a distinct and independent union inside the university system, none of our members had requested a strike. Following this, on August 19, 2022, a press conference was held in Abuja at which it was unequivocally declared that CONUA was not a part of any strike that was now in progress and that the “No Work, No Pay” policy should not be applied to union members.
CONUA anticipates that the government will effortlessly release our members’ unpaid wages when it starts paying salaries to all university workers again in October 2022 as a result of the express and categorical declaration. To our surprise, however, CONUA members were also given pro-rata salaries despite the fact that the strike had effectively prevented us from doing our tasks.
“We then sent a letter to the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Ministry of Labour and Employment to warn them that it was wrong to group our members with those who had called for and begun a strike action. Another surprise was that our members did not receive their November 2022 salaries along with the pending backlog of salaries.
The Trade Disputes Act CAP. T8’s Section 43 (1b) stated that “where any employer locks out his workers, the workers shall be entitled to wages and any other applicable remunerations for the period of the lock-out and the period of the lock-out shall not prejudicially affect any rights of the workers being rights dependent on the continuity of period of employment.” CONUA claimed that the non-payment of “our withheld salaries” violates this provision.
It further stated, “This provision is compatible with international best practices.”
We have decided to seek legal redress for the unlawful withholding of our legitimate salaries by taking the matter to court in accordance with the rights enshrined in our collective bargaining agreement because of the aforementioned and because we are a law-abiding union that promised to do things differently.
Vincent Paul
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