Strike: ASUU, ASUP, Others To Get ₦34bn Minimum Wage Arrears

• Ngige said that the beneficiaries of the Minimum Wage Consequential Adjustments included the members of the striking ASUU

• The minister, while giving update on the ongoing striking, said committees were set up during the last tripartite meeting of the government and university-based unions

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EKO HOT BLOG reports that the Federal Government has said it will spend about ₦34 billion as arrears of Minimum Wage Consequential Adjustments in the education sector effective from 2019.

Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige said that this was aimed at resolving the lingering crisis in the sector.

Ngige made this known while speaking with newsmen on the prolonged strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), and others on Tuesday in Abuja.

Ngige said that the beneficiaries of the Minimum Wage Consequential Adjustments included the members of the striking ASUU and their counterparts in the polytechnics and Colleges of Education.

According to Ngige, the universities will get ₦23.5 billion, the polytechnics ₦6 billion and the Colleges of Education ₦4 billion, bringing the total sum to ₦33.5 billion.

The minister, while giving update on the ongoing striking, said committees were set up during the last tripartite meeting of the government and university based unions.

He said they were given a fortnight to turn in their report, adding they were still working and the reports of the committees were being expected at the end of the week.

“Those committees are working. The one on NITDA is testing the three platforms, the government’s Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS).

“Also the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) of ASUU and the Universities Peculiar Personnel Payroll System (UPPPS) of the non-teaching staff.

“They have started the testing last Thursday. The National Salaries, Wages and Incomes Commission (NSWIC) has issued their amendment circulars.

“The unions also have copies to take care of responsibility and hazard allowances wherever it has not been properly captured.’’

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Ngige assured that there might likely be wage adjustments as the government intensified efforts to streamling wages through the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission.

The minister therefore, appealed to ASUU and other university-based unions once more to suspend their strike so that academic activities could resume once again in public universities across the country.

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