ASUU in an Uproar as FG Pays Lecturers Half-Salary

By Bibisinuoluwa Agarah

The Academic Staff Union of Universities received a great shock on the 3rd of November, 2022 when the Academic Staff Union members received a half salary.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities had embarked on an eight-month-long strike, demanding the review of salaries for workers and improved funding for universities. The deadlock between the union and the federal government lasted for months, at which point the federal government insisted on a No Work No Pay Policy, informing the members that they would not be paid for the period the union had been on strike.

The labor minister, Dr. Chris Ngige, has kept to his word. On the 3rd of November, the Union workers under the union received a half salary. The union resumed and opened universities on the 14th of October, the government then paid them according to the No Work No Pay Policy, insisting tye Union workers only worked for half of October.

Osedeke reportedly said, "Half salaries were paid; no reasons were given whatsoever. We learned that Ngige wrote to the office of the Accountant General and Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) and told them to only pay us for the period when we called off the strike."

Although according to some Union workers, the government had promised to pay the salary for four months, out of eight, the Union workers had been on strike. The payment of half the salaries has been called insulting and underhanded.

The Academic Staff Union president, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, has summoned a Ñational Executive Council Meeting to meet on Tuesday, November 8 to decide what the next course of action is going to be.