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CONUA makes case for salary payment of its members, says it was not part of ASUU strike

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The leadership of Congress of Univeristy Academics (CONUA), a factional univeristy union registered amid the ASUU strike, has begged the Nigerian government to pay the withheld salaries of all university lecturers.

This was as the federal government set to commence the payment of withheld salaries of only CONUA members as demanded by the union.

The government had refused to pay ASUU members for staying away from work for a period of eight months of its industrial action.

CONUA President, Niyi Sunmonu, who spoke during its maiden National Executive Council meeting held at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife during the weekend, appealed to the government to consider all the lecturers in the payment of the withheld salaries.

Read also:‘Don’t behave like ASUU,’ Ngige warns CONUA, NAMDA on strike

He was however, quick to point out that CONUA members were not part of the lecturers strike that grounded universities, as they were ready to work, but students were asked to vacate the ivory towers.
The President also tasked the government to promptly fix the humongous corruption and accreditation fraud evident in the universities.

Sunmonu said: “The only thing we can do at this stage is to appeal to the FG to be magnanimous to pay everybody. But along the line of principle, CONUA did not declare a strike, and the ‘no work no pay’ policy will be unjust to be applied to it.

“CONUA has consistently maintained before now, that it didn’t declare any strike and by the provision of section 43 subsection 1B of the trade dispute act, what happened to members of CONUA can be taken to be what happens in that provision of that section.

“To our mind, what the government is implementing is a ‘no work no pay’ policy. We believe we wanted to work, we didn’t declare strike, and the students that we needed to teach were asked to vacate the campus.

“As far as the crisis is concerned, as far as we are concerned, it won’t degenerate into issues because the other union declares strike and they can actually state their case before the government or the court.”

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