Senior Varsity Workers Begin Strike December 24

SENIOR university staff under the aegis of Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) will begin an indefinite strike action from December 24 to protest the sack of over 2,000 staff teachers.

The National President of SSANU, Samson Ugwoke, explained in Abuja yesterday that the universities’ councils employed the affected staff from 31 universities for more than 10 years.

He said further that the directive to disengage the staff schools’ teachers emanated from a circular purportedly written on behalf of the Minister of Education and signed by the Deputy Director in the ministry, Fayemi E. O. dated April 21, 2015, with an attached memorandum and report from the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission, dated March 5, 2014 and February 2014 respectively.

The directive asked agencies that had been funding the personnel costs of staff primary schools in the federal budget to stop the practice with immediate effect.

SSANU said that as a corollary to the above directive, the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission through a circular dated August 27, 2014, directed that personnel/teachers of schools affiliated to institutions and agencies like staff schools should on no account be included in the nominal roll of such institutions.

Ugwoke said December was given as a deadline for the removal of personnel/teachers of university staff schools from the payroll of government, adding that the implication was that the category of workers numbering over 2,000 from over 30 universities would be thrown into the unemployment market.

While announcing the commencement of indefinite strike from Thursday, December 24, SSANU said that university staff schools “are integral part of the university system, established as welfare and municipal services for scholars and staff.”