The Minister of Labour and Employment Dr. Chris Ngige, during the weekend said President Muhammadu Buhari has waived the ‘no work, no pay’ Trade Act for striking university lecturers to allow peace to reign.
The Minister who spoke in an exclusive interview with The Nation said the government has released N40billion for the payment of earned academic allowances for varsity lecturers and earned allowances for non-academic staff.
He added that the government may release N30 billion revitalisation funds to varsities by the end of this month.
Ngige stated that out of the N40 billion, about N10 billion was voted for the payment of earned allowances of members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SANU), Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) and technologists.
Although the non-academic staff have threatened strike over the sharing formula by the National Universities Commission (NUC), the government said when a similar payment was made in 2019, they got N8 billion.
The Minister, however said the Federal Government has so far kept faith with the agreement between it and ASUU.
He said: “We are keeping faith religiously with the implementation of the agreement. In fact, President Muhammadu Buhari has given ASUU members a waiver/ pardon on the no, work, no pay clause in the nation’s Trade Disputes Act.
“I had to write officially for the presidential waiver on payment of outstanding wages of varsity lecturers to strengthen our pact and more so we are in a COVID-19 pandemic era.
“So, for harmony and understanding, we decided on compassionate ground not to invoke Section 43 of the nation’s Trade Disputes Act.”