Ngige Updates Adamu On ASUU/FG Negotiation As Union Extends StrikeThe Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, has written the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, to get the situation report on the negotiation between the leadership of the union and the ministry.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) had extended its industrial action which is now in its sixth month.
The union extended the ongoing strike on Monday morning after its National Executive Council meeting at its headquarters at the University of Abuja.
However, there are insinuations that the Federal Government may drag ASUU to the National Industrial Court for refusing to suspend the strike over claims that some of its concerns had been addressed.
According to reports, an impeccable source in the Ministry of Labour and Employment did not confirm whether there was any such move to take ASUU to the Industrial Court, but the source said the Minister of Labour, who is the Conciliator-in-Chief, might meet with the Minister of Education to know the status of the ongoing renegotiation talks.
“We gathered that the Minister (Ngige) has written to the Minister of Education to know the status of the ongoing negotiation with ASUU. The union is also expected to inform the ministry,” the source said.
On ASUU’s extension of the strike, the source said: “There must be a reason they decided to extend the strike, despite government’s offer to them. But I don’t know whether they have given their reasons for the action to the Minister of Education; the union is supposed to write to the ministry to state why they are extending the strike. They are also supposed to copy the Minister of Labour.”
Since the Minister of Education was the direct employer of the university teachers and the one handling the negotiation matters, it was normal that he should write his counterpart in the Ministry of Labour on the situation report, another source said.
“You know the matter was sent to Mallam Adamu to renegotiate the 2009 agreement with ASUU, that is why the Professor Nimi Briggs Renegotiation Committee was set up. If there is any breakdown, the Minister of Education should write a report on the status of the negotiation to the Minister of Labour. ASUU is also expected to send a report to the Labour Minister,” he added.
