ASUP Strike: House of Reps urge Govt, ASUP to find common ground to end strike The House of Representatives on Monday called on the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics to find a common ground to end the lingering strike that has crippled polytechnics for seven months. This decision was conveyed to both parties at a negotiation meeting convened by the House at the House of Representatives to thrash out outstanding issues that have led to the strike action. Chairman, House Committee on Education, Suleiman Aminu, who presided over the negotiation meeting regretted that the strike has been left to linger, appealing to the Federal Government to ignore the fact that ASUP rejected the initial offer for arrears payment to be made in March and September and go ahead to source for funds for the payment. At the meeting, Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike noted that the refusal of ASUP in writing on the offer of the Federal Government to pay them in two installments led to the non budgetary provision for the arrears in 2014. He said as a result of that action, it would be difficult to immediately implement the payment. The supervising Minister for Education, Mr Nysome Wike, who disclosed this to the House of Representatives Committee on Education, however, said the report of the visitation panel, expected to be submitted next week, would determine the steps to be taken by the government on the industrial action. Wike was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Mr McJohn Nwaobiala. The minister was summoned by the committee to be part of a meeting held by the lawmakers with ASUP officials. He said although the government was willing to pay the CONTISS-14 salary arrears, he could not make a commitment on when the money would be paid because it was not captured in this year’s budget. According to him, “if I had a pit where there is money in the ministry to settle this, as I leave here now, we will settle it….In this year 2014, we don’t have a provision for settling this arrear. The ministry had requested for a special budgetary intervention to enable us to settle it. I can’t make a commitment that I will or that the ministry will release these funds in April or July. What I will say is that my minister needs to consult with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Minister of Labour so that we can know how we can get the funds”. Wike denied his ministry was withholding the White Paper on the contentious issue, stressing that there was no logic in doing that. According to him, “this White Paper contains issues specific to each polytechnic and there are issues that are generic. It is for the government to say we endorse this or we reject this recommendation…we have been putting pressure that this White Paper be released…with little additional pressure within this week or next week, that the White Paper will be released”. He said, “the ministry has written and spoken with the SGF. The last situation is that the SGF called me to ask for the electronic copy of that report, which I did. I want to assure you that that the White Paper will be released very soon and when released, the next problem will be how to pay arrears”. Wike insisted that it was because ASUP reneged on an earlier agreement to get their staff migrated to CONTISS -15 salary arrears paid last April and July that led to the delay in resolving the ongoing strike. He said: “ASUP rejected that proposal officially in writing. Same day, the minister had written to the President that they had reached an agreement before we were informed that ASUP rejected the proposal. “The Head of Service gave approval in 2013 and details of how we got the 22. something billion naira was only received this year. ..I believe that was an opportunity that was lost. If they had accepted March and September, we would have worked very hard to ensure that it is implemented”. However, in his response, ASUP President , Chibuzo Asumogha, accused the government of failing to implement the condensed four-point demand of the union to enable the polytechnics re-open. He said government officials “imposed” the decision to pay the arrears in April and September on them, noting that though the union had agreed to step down its 13-point demand, the government was not showing the needed commitment required to make them go back to the classroom.
Posted on: Tue, 13 May 2014 08:10:32 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015