ASUU factional union, CONUA, blows hot, to sue Nigerian govt over withheld salaries

The Congress of University Academics (CONUA) has expressed its disappointment with the Federal Government, especially the Ministry of Labour and Employment, over the non-payment of its members’ withheld salaries.

The union made this known in a statement signed by its National President, Secretary and Publicity Secretary, Dr Niyi Sunmonu, Dr Henry Oripeloye and Dr Ernest Nwoke, on Tuesday.

CONUA and the National Association of Medical and Dental Academics (NAMDA) were registered as factional unions of univeristy academics in the heat of ASUU strike which lasted for eight months.

The factional union in the statement said it was wrong for the FG to lump its members with the Academic Staff Union of Universities who went on eight months strike between February and October, 2022.

ASUU and FG have been at loggerheads over what the former described as ‘amputated salary’ paid to its members for the month of October.

The statement read: “CONUA formally made its non-involvement in the strike known to the Federal Government in a letter addressed to the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, in April 2022.

Read also:Nigerian govt implores ‘uncle of unions’, NLC, to quit opposing creation of CONUA, NAMDA

“In the letter, we made it clear that because CONUA constituted a separate and independent union in the university system, our members did not call for any strike. This was followed by a Press Conference in Abuja on August 19, 2022 at which it was categorically stated that CONUA was not part of any ongoing strike, and that the “No Work No Pay” principle ought not to apply to members of the union.

“CONUA’s expectation is that, due to the express and categorical declaration, the government would seamlessly release our members’ outstanding salaries when it resumed the payment of salaries to all university staff in October 2022. But to our dismay, CONUA members were also paid pro-rata salaries in complete disregard to the fact that we were indeed shut out of duties by the strike.

“Subsequently, we wrote to the Accountant-General of the Federatıon and the Ministry of Labour and Employment reminding them that it was an error to lump our members with those that declared and embarked on strike action. It was yet another shock for the outstanding backlog of salaries not to have been paid to our members along with the November 2022 salary.

“From the foregoing and as a law-abiding union that pledged to do things differently, we have resolved to seek legal redress of the illegal withholding of our legitimate salaries by taking the matter to court in consonance with the rights enshrined in our laws.”

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