JUST IN: FG drags ASUU to court over failed negotiations

Amidst the back-and-forth dispute between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, the former has dragged ASUU to court.

The academic body, ASUU, embarked on the strike action on February 15, marking it 7 months of neglect of the welfare of its members. Doing so has left many students stranded in their academic pursuits.

A source confirmed that the dispute, which has kept many universities shut down, will be shifted to the Industrial court next Monday.

According to a reliable source at the Federal Ministry of Labour, the ministry’s Trade Dispute Department had filed a case before the Industrial Arbitration Court in Abuja, and in view, the hearing would commence next Monday, September 12.

According to the source, “The federal government has filed a case at the Industrial Court challenging the continued strike by the university teachers. This is in conformity with Section 17 of the Trade Dispute Act.”

This is coming after a series of negotiations between the parties, the Federal Government and ASUU, which ended in deadlock and further extension of the strike action.

The meeting finally hit the rocks last Tuesday after both sides met at the National University Commission’s office in Abuja.

According to the federal government, it would not sign any other agreement it cannot implement.

Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, disclosed this during a meeting of Pro-Chancellors and Vice Chancellors of Federal Universities held at the NUC’s office.

Adamu said President Muhammadu Buhari had warned the government’s team involved in the negotiation with ASUU against signing an agreement that the government would not be able to fulfill.

The minister said the government had offered the union a 23.5 per cent salary increase “for all categories of the workforce in federal universities, except for the professorial cadre which will enjoy a 35 per cent upward review.  He said the government had also promised that N150 billion “shall be provided for in the 2023 Budget as funds for the revitalisation of federal universities, to be disbursed to the Institutions in the First Quarter of the year.”

Also, the government said N50 billion would be provided “for in the 2023 Budget for the payment of outstanding arrears of earned academic allowances, to be paid in the first quarter of the year.”

However, ASUU and three other university unions have rejected the offer, describing it as “inadequate to meet their respective demands needed to tackle the challenges confronting the university system.”