The Congress of University Academics has requested that the Federal Government pay its members’ withheld salaries.
This followed the government’s decision to pay prorated salaries to members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities.
According to Senator Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment, it was done in the spirit of the Federal Government’s “No work, no pay” policy.
However, in a statement issued on Sunday by its President, Dr. Niyi Sunmonu, CONUA stated that its members did not join ASUU’s strike.
The statement said:
Congress of University Academics (CONUA) hereby calls on the Federal Government to, without delay, pay members of the union’s withheld salaries.
As a union, we have stated several times that we were not part of the strike declared by the Academic Staff Union of Universities.
We first made this fact clear in a letter we addressed to the Minister of Labour and Employment in April 2022.
And, at a press conference we addressed in Abuja on August 19, 2022 we also stated categorically that, as a union, we were not on strike, and, this being the case, the issue of no work no pay ought not apply to our members.
Given the above, CONUA considers it unfair that the salaries paid to members of the union were done pro-rata.
What ought actually to have been done, and which we now call on the government to do, is to pay the backlog of our salaries from March to September (2022), in addition to what was cut off from our October (2022) salaries.
We expect the government to act on the demand immediately.