The Congress of University Academics (CONUA) has asked the Federal Government to immediately begin payment of members’ withheld three-and-a-half-month salaries, as well as remunerations of members, which the union said had remained stagnant despite rising inflation.
In a press statement issued on Thursday, CONUA President, ‘Niyi Sunmonu, while appreciating the government for paying four months’ salaries out of the seven and a half months in which the Academic Staff Union of Universities was on strike, urged the government to pay the rest of the outstanding salaries, clarifying that the union did not participate in the strike action.
The statement partly read “The Union wishes to convey its appreciation to the Federal Government for effecting the payment of four months out of the seven and a half withheld salaries of academics in federal universities as a result of strike action embarked upon by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
“Our union, CONUA, has consistently maintained that it never declared and was not part of any strike action. What the government had done was to lump together those who embarked on strike with those who did not!
“This will give the impression that the Federal Government does not appreciate other measures other than strike to pursue the demands of academics! This is against the judgment delivered on 25th July 2023 at the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN), which affirmed CONUA as an independent Union.”
It added that since CONUA neither called for nor joined any strike, withholding the three-and-a-half months’ salaries of members of the union contravenes Section 43 (1b) of the Trade Disputes Act CAP. T8, which states that “where any employer locks out his workers, the workers shall be entitled to wages and any other applicable remunerations for the period of the lock-out and the period of the lock-out shall not prejudicially affect any rights of the workers being rights dependent on the continuity of the period of employment.”
