SSANU’s wrong call

SSANU leaders expressed anger that in the six years since they reached agreement with government over the payment of ‘earned allowances’, the government was dragging its feet in implementing it, in spite of several appeals. The union lamented the continuous refusal of the federal government to negotiate the agreement which according to the union is […]

SSANU leaders expressed anger that in the six years since they reached agreement with government over the payment of ‘earned allowances’, the government was dragging its feet in implementing it, in spite of several appeals. The union lamented the continuous refusal of the federal government to negotiate the agreement which according to the union is long overdue.
The SSANU members made their stand known in a communiqué issued at union’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held recently at Obudu Mountain Resort in Cross River State. They stated that “the reluctance of the federal government to implement all the components of the agreement is highly regrettable and capable of truncating the current industrial harmony existing in the nation’s universities”. While berating the government’s failure to pay outstanding arrears of earned allowances, the union decried media statements made by government functionaries that the union’s officials said were exerting pressures on the leadership of the union at national and branch levels.
Beside the non-payment of earned allowances, SSANU also accused the NUC of unilaterally expunging aspect of the 2009 agreement regarding university demonstration staff schools. The union expressed frustration at what the officials said was the overbearing attitude of and unnecessary interference by the NUC management in the implementation of the agreement. SSANU warned NUC to stop meddling in the affairs of the universities so as not to overheat the relatively peaceful atmosphere on Nigerian campuses.
Given the stated purpose for which earned allowances were approved for academic staff members of universities, it is important to examine the extent to which the same facility may apply to non-academic staff members of Nigerian universities, or indeed whether it applies at all. What duties do non-academic staff members perform outside their main job that would qualify them to earn such special allowances? Does the totality of their duties place them in a position to earn such benefits? An earned allowance was approved for members of the Academic staff Union of Universities (ASUU) who first agitated for it because it constitutes payment that can only be claimed by those who perform certain academic duties, including excess load. Even among academics, it is not an allowance that can be automatically paid to every staff. A lecturer, for instance, earns some pay for excess load if the class size of students is larger than what NUC defines as standard class. A lecturer whose number of students in a class falls within the NUC definition of a standard class does get the earned allowance.
Whenever there is no specific framework for earnings in any given organization, agreements arising from premises that cannot be justified are likely to be stalled at the level of implementation, as it seems to be the case in the agreement between the government and SSANU. Although the terms of the agreement entered should be honoured by both parties, SSANU’s threat to call the strike is ill-timed.
The management of NUC should call leadership to a roundtable, not interferences in the implementation of agreements already reached between the government and university staff unions.
SSANU should withdraw its strike threat and keep its doors open for negotiations over the agreement.