The Federal Government has set up a committee to resolve the dispute over the N40bn earned allowances and complaints about the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System.
FG alongside the Joint Action Committee comprising the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions agreed to set up the committee during a meeting on Tuesday.
The meeting was between the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, SSANU National President, Mohammed Ibrahim, and NASU General Secretary, Peters Adeyemi, in Abuja.
Speaking to journalists after the meeting, Ngige said, that the deliberations were fruitful and that the government responded to issues concerning IPPIS.
He said, “The deliberations were fruitful, government side responded to issues concerning IPPIS and what is being done to assist university workers, who have had some complaints in that direction, especially some of the allowances they said were chopped off by IPPIS system.
“ We have put up a joint committee of the unions, members of government side from Ministry of Education, Salary, Wages and Income Commission, Office of Accountant-General and the National University Commission to work hand-in-hand to make sure that all the anomalies are treated and we do hope that it will be done to the satisfaction of everybody.”
Ngige also said that the government also set up a committee to formalize the allowances that the unions have been granted in the university system. He said this was done so that there could be uniformity in the system in that respect.
On the issue of the demand for university autonomy by the unions, Ngige noted that the visitation panels were waiting for the university system to stabilize before the members can audit both the administrative and financial system of the university for 10 years.
He stated that the unions asked to take back the agreements to their members for deliberations with a promise to report back for further discussions.
“They are to communicate to us the possible date for our next meeting in the next 48 hours so that we can get the government agencies needed for the meeting to prepare.”
However, the NASU General Secretary said the issues had not been concluded.
Adeyemi said, “We are favorably disposed to dialogue and after discussing with our members, we will come back and continue with the discussion. So far, nothing has been concluded. We don’t have the mandate to talk about suspending the strike.”