ASUU vs FG: education minister adamant on “no work no pay” policy
As the lingering crisis between the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, and the Federal Government takes a new twist, signaling another round of industrial action by ASUU, Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu has insisted on the ‘no work no pay’ policy embark on by the FG.
What is the new development on the matter?
On Monday, November 14, Freshly Pressed reported that another trouble was brewing between the FG and ASUU, when the former directed its member to hold a one-day protest rally and also abstain from lectures on that same day, to press home their demand for full payment of their eight-month salary backlogs.
In response to the ongoing nationwide protest, the education minister has said that Federal Government remains resolute in its decision of implementing the ‘no work no pay’ policy, insisting that the protesting lecturers would not receive any payment for the eight months that they were on strike.
Mallam Adamu Adamu stated this while speaking with State House correspondents in Abuja yesterday Wednesday, November 16, declaring that “they would not be paid for work not done” in line with the no work no pay” policy.
The minister, in a reaction to the allegation made by ASUU president, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, that the Federal government’s plan of paying lecturers on a pro-rata basis was a ploy to “casualize” them, said, “Nobody can make university lecturers casual workers”.
Mallam Adamu also told the State House Correspondents he was not aware of the Lecturer’s one-day protest action. ASUU president professor Osodeke has also accused politicians of planning to privatize federal universities across the country.
Osodeke, while speaking at a special congress of the Joseph Sarwuan Tarka University, formerly known as the Federal University of Agriculture Makurdi, revealed hinted that two options were being considered by presidential candidates of some political parties in the forthcoming general elections.
He said the candidates are planning to sell federal universities through public-private partnerships and the other plan is to initiate student loans at a five percent interest rate.
