Withheld salaries: We’ll only pay half to non-academic staff — FG

The Federal Government may have foreclosed the possibility of university workers being fully paid salaries withheld, following the industrial action they embarked on in 2022.

The hint to this effect was dropped by the Minister of Education, Prof. Tabir Mamman,  in an interview on Channels Television’s ”Politics Today” programme on Wednesday night.

For academic staff who are members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, and Congress of University Academics, CONUA, they were paid four months of the eight months salaries.

Members of the National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT, have five and a half months’ salaries on hold, the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Education and Allied Institutions, NASU, have four months’ salaries pending.

“There is a court judgement on no work, no pay. ASUU getting four months’ pay was actually a discretion and decision on the part of the President. So, it doesn’t automatically transfer to NASU and SSANU but the matter is under consideration,” Mamman said.

Asked to give a timeframe for payment of the non-academic varsity staff, the minister said:  “I don’t think it is safe to put a time on it but it’s safer to say we are on it and we are pushing.

“In any case, the non-academic staff were not on strike for the same period as the academic staff — about four months or so. So, if they are getting payment, it is going to be half of that (payment), if the President will follow his precedent with the academic staff.”

The minister, who also debunked claim of discrimination against non-teaching staff, stated:  “That cannot be right, there is no rating. These are people working in the same terrain, they are doing different things but all working towards the same goal.

”I believe what happened was a communication problem, it wasn’t deliberate to exclude them from that benefit.”

While speaking on the matter in chats with the Vanguard newspaper, the leaders of NAAT, NASU and SSANU, said they were waiting for the government to even pay half of the withheld salaries for  the unions to decide what next to do.

 Ibeji Nwokoma, the National President of NAAT, said:  “If that is what they want to do, let them pay first, then we know what to do.

”If they pay ASUU members four months, then we expect them to pay us three months. From that point, we can move on to the next stage.”

Asked what would happen if the government refuses to pay more than half of the salaries, Nwokoma said time would tell.

Also, the National Secretary of NASU,  Peters Adeyemi, said:  “I don’t have a reaction for now unfortunately. The union will meet and take appropriate position on that.”

The Chairman of SSANU chapter of the University of Lagos, UNILAG,  Olugbenga Adenaiya, said:  “Let them pay us first and there is the saying that you don’t reject money when it is already in your pocket. If they pay us two months now, we will wait and see.

”You know that there are many unions in the system, if one begins to complain again about the issue, others won’t keep quiet  and the government cannot answer one and leave the others.”

Recall that President Bola Tinubu had last October, given the directive that part of the withheld salaries be paid, following which academic staff were paid four months in February.

The exclusion of non-teaching staff led to a series of warning strikes by them last month and they have given the government till the end of this month to also pay them.