The Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) and Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) of the Federal University Lokoja (FUL), Kogi state, on Tuesday, embarked on a peaceful protest to herald the three-day warning strike notice it issued the Federal Government.
The warning strike, according to the protesting workers, became necessary following failure of federal government to implement the agreement reached with the national body of the unions in a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed on October 18 last year.
Addressing newsmen at the gate of the institution after the peaceful protest, Chairman, SSANU/Joint Action Committee of Federal University Lokoja, Mr. Uche Onyedi, threatened complete shutdown of the varsity in the event of failure by the government to implement the MOU entered into by the parties.
He warned that the protest marks the beginning of a series of industrial actions to be undertaken by JAC.
“As a result of the warning strike by NASU/SSANU, an eight point MoU was signed by JAC of SSANU and NASU on one hand, other stakeholders of the Federal Goverment on the other hand, at the instance of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Abuja, on the 20th of October, 2020, in which a committee was constituted to look at our demands with a view to mapping out ways of solving them.
“Very unfortunately, the Federal Government reneged on its promises to implement the agreements contained in the MoU.
“You are aware that there are glaring inconsistencies in the IPPIS payment platform, non payment of allowances, non payment of arrears of minimum wage consequential adjustments, delay in renegotiation of the 3009 agreements, very poor funding of state-owned universities, lack of visitation panels to universities for a very long time, non payment of retirement benefits.
“We are asking the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency implement the MoU now, to avoid closing down the university for another year,” he said.
