Ngige Can No Longer Mediate Labor Court Case – ASUU President
The national president of the Union of Academic Staff of Universities, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, has lambasted the Minister of Labor and Employment, Chris Ngige, over his alleged authorization of partial payment of union members’ salaries, following the suspension of his eight-month strike in October.
Osodeke, who spoke on a Channels Television show on Tuesday, November 15, said Ngige lost his right to mediator after taking the case to the labor court.
He further described the Minister as an “intruder” who wrote personally to the Minister of Finance asking him to stop paying the salaries of the striking teachers.
The ASUU President said;
“He (Ngige) went to court, which means he lost his right to mediate. Once he brought this case before the labor court, he lost this right of conciliator; he has nothing more to say, but he continues to intervene.
” He has nothing. He’s an intruder. If we call him a conciliator, that goes beyond him.
“And we found out that he was the one who actually wrote to the finance minister personally, not asking him to stop our salary. It’s just personal. We are surprised because, having brought the matter before the courts, as of right, his hands are tied. It has nothing to do with what we do.
While confirming that the partial payment was the first salary paid to union members since the end of the strike, Osodeke also expressed confidence that the union’s unrest would be resolved in the interests of students, parents and the country.
The ASUU President added;
“But to our surprise, the Accountant General’s Office decided to pay what some called half. It is very sad because teachers who are on the same pay scale received varying amounts, N200,000, N180,000, N90,000 and so on.
“The question we have to ask ourselves is this: can a Minister of Labor order the Minister of Finance what he must do? The answer is no. We are under the Department of Education, and we thought whoever could give such a directive that monitored what we were doing through the NUC was the Minister of Education.
“It is the Minister of Education, under whom we are, and the President on whose intervention we called off the strike because of the problem, we said that, firstly, they will pay us the arrears of our wages because ASUU is different from another union.”
