The lingering strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which has for seven months now, grounded academic activities in public universities, has entered a new phase.
Following unsuccessful attempts to get ASUU to call off the strike, the federal government of Nigeria has dragged the union to the National Industrial Court.
The development was announced on Sunday through a statement signed by the Head of Press and Public Relations at the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Olajide Oshundun. He said the Federal Government took the decision after dialogue between it and ASUU failed.
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The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, in an official letter dated September 8, and addressed to the Chief Registrar of National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Abuja, asked the court to accelerate the hearing so as to bring the issue of strike to an end.
The letter, which the court received on September 9, has the title:”Forwarding of a referral instrument in the trade dispute between federal government/federal ministry of education and the Academic Staff Union of Universities.”
The government wants the National Industrial Court to order ASUU members to return to work while the matter is being addressed by the court.
“In view of the fact that ASUU members have been on strike since February 14, and have refused to call off the action despite apprehension of same, it would be appreciated if this dispute is given an accelerated hearing in order to bring the dispute to an end,” the letter reads partly.
The case, which is scheduled for mention at 9 am on Monday, has a list of prayers from the Federal Government.
The government is asking the court to determine whether the strike by ASUU is legal or not. It also wants the court to interpret in its entirety the provisions of Section 18 LFN 2004, especially as it applies to the cessation of the strike once a trade dispute is apprehended by the Minister of Labour and Employment and conciliation is ongoing.
The list of the things the government is asking the court to do is as follows:
“Interpret the provisions of Section 43 of the Trade Dispute Act, Cap T8. LFN 2004, titled “Special Provision with Respect to payment of wages during Strikes and Lock-outs,” specifically dealing with the rights of employees/workers during the period of any strike or lock-out. Can ASUU or any other union that embarked on strike be asking to be paid salaries even with clear provisions of the law?
“Determine whether ASUU members are entitled to emoluments or “strike pay” during their period of strike, which commenced on February 14, 2022, more so in view of our national law as provided in Section 43 of the TDA and the International Labour Principles on the right to strike as well as the decisions of the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association on the Subject.”
“Determine whether ASUU has the right to embark on strike over disputes as is the case in this instance by compelling the Federal Government to employ its own University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) in the payment of the wages of its members as against the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) universally used by the Federal Government in the nation for payment of wages of all her employees in the Federal Government Public Service of which university workers including ASUU members are part of or even where the government via NITDA subjected ASUU and their counterpart UPPPS university payment platform system software to integrity test (vulnerability and stress test) and they failed.”
The Federal Government also wants the court to determine the extent of ASUU’s demand since the 2020 Memorandum of Action (MOA) that the union signed with the government.
The new turn of events underscores the government’s growing habit of trying to use the court to achieve its aim amidst industrial conflict. In August 2021, the federal government filed a lawsuit against striking resident doctors, under the aegis of National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), before the National Industrial Court.
The federal government had asked the court to order the doctors to return to work otherwise, it would implement the ‘no work no pay’ policy – a method it has also deployed against ASUU.
In September 2021, the Industrial Court sitting in Abuja ordered the striking doctors back to work. In its ruling, the court held that there is no amount of money that will compensate for the loss of lives in the circumstances.
However, unlike the doctors’ strike, ASUU’s strike poses no risk to human lives apart from economic hardship emanating from it and the future of Nigerian students that it is jeopardizing. It is therefore not clear if the federal government stands a chance of getting favorable court judgment this time.
ASUU had on August 29 declared total and indefinite strike after its meetings with the federal government failed to yield a desirable result. Among the demands of the academic union is funding that amounts to more than N1trillion. ASUU said that the fund will be used to revitalize public university education in Nigeria.