No going back on April 30 deadline, FUTA SSANU tells FG

The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, the Federal University of Technology, Akure branch has declared that the association would commence its strike on the scheduled April 30 if the Federal Government fails to honour the agreement had with it .

The Federal Government has earlier approved a 30 per cent increase in the consolidated salary structure of non-academic staff in federal universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.

But the Joint Action Committee of the SSANU and the Non-Academic Staff Union rejected the increase and demanded the immediate withdrawal of the letter which allegedly approving a 30 per cent salary increase for non-teaching staff or risk a nationwide shutdown of public universities.

Speaking at the meeting of the association held on the campus of FUTA on Wednesday, the FUTA branch chairman of the association, Felix Adumbi, said there was no going back on the April 30, deadline unless concluded the negotiation with the association, on the issue of welfare and other emoluments.

According to him, the negotiation had started since 2022 and it had not been concluded when the Federal Government came up with a controversial circular of 30 percent salary increase.

He said, “We have started this renegotiation long ago and we are asking government to, as a matter of urgency, conclude this renegotiation and let us have an agreement that we can work with. The renegotiation is dated back to as far back as 2022, but when government showed commitment in the last October.

“So, since that time, there has been consistency in the renegotiation process, but we are saying that they should conclude this agreement in good time. As a matter of fact, at the end of the 54th National Executive Council meeting we had in Ekiti State University in March, we gave an ultimatum of between April 1 to 30th of April for the government to conclude this renegotiation and we are still standing by that ultimatum.”

On the circular issued by the Federal Government over 30 percent salary increment, the labour leader threatened that the circular remained rejected and if the government refused to call for renegotiation, the association would consider industrial action after the deadline

He stated, “The controversial circular (of 30percent) took us by surprise because, as at the last meeting we had with the government, there has been no concluded agreement. The decision of the committee as at the last meeting was that each party should go and meet their principals.

“We just saw the circular flying around about the award of a 30 percent increment for this. I said, this is not a product of any renegotiated agreement and we rejected it in its entirety. It cannot be an outcome of a renegotiation that is still ongoing.”

The group reiterated its call on the government to quickly conclude the agreement, saying, “We are going to go by a signed agreement,we have given them the ultimatum as far back as 31st of March that between April 1 and April 30th, if the government fails to conclude this agreement, we are going to signal our national headquarters to get further directive.”