The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) called off its strike on wednesday, 23rd September, 2020 after reaching an agreement with the Federal Government.
the ASUU President, announced after a meeting with the union’s executive committee that they would suspend the industrial action for one month till end of October. According to Professor Abiodun, this was to allow the Government enough time to fulfill its promises as contained in the recent agreement with them. To this end, the union directed university lecturers to resume duty effective from monday 28 September, 2020.
The union had embarked on an indefinite strike on 11 March, 2020, following Government’s failure to implement the agreement reached with the union in November 2016 and to implement UTAs
Sources in the Labour Ministry indicated that ASUU’s decision to suspend the strike was reached after a four hours closed door meeting with the Federal Government delegation led by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige.
At the meeting, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by the union’s President, Professor Abiodun and Dr. Ngige on behalf of the federal government. Others who signed the document were: President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade AyubaWabba; Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Architect Sonny Echono; Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Mr. Bolaji Adebiyi; as well as other members of the government team.
Highlights of the agreement reached included funding of government universities, payment of earned academic allowances, government responsibility as regards academic staff schools (primary wing), pension matters for professors, payment of salary shortfalls on which implementation has already commenced and resolution on exemption of Treasury Single Account (TSA) payment system in certain areas.
In his reaction, Dr. Ngige said the grey areas were conclusively dealt with to the satisfaction of both patties.”
There is a report going on via social media (Twitter) that the Academic Staff Union Of Universities (ASUU) has called off its strike and asked lecturers of various institutions in Nigeria to resume.
We would like to inform the general public to kindly wait for an official press release from the ASUU Twitter handle and other platforms, This is because that information is yet to be confirmed.
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