The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has urged the federal government to ensure that the impasse between it and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is ended soonest.
Ayuba Wabba, the president of NLC disclosed this recently in his response to the report of the director-general of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) at the 110th conference of the organisation in Geneva, Switzerland.
“In Nigeria, workers in our universities, both academic and non-academic, have been on strike for more than two months because of non-implementation of the collective bargaining agreement.
“We call on the government to bring this strike to an end without further delay,” Wabba said.
The labour leader reiterated that the congress wrote to President Muhammadu Buhari on how to use a high-powered delegation to end the strike.
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Wabba said the process of conducting integrity tests on the University Transparency and Accountability Solution(UTAS), a payment platform developed by ASUU had been concluded by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
“I think the process has been concluded. What we are waiting for is for that process to be reconvened again and for that issue to be resolved. We opened that channel of intervention among others.
“I am also aware that the Inter-Faith Religious Council also met with Mr President and the thinking was in the same direction.
“We will be very committed to reviewing that process and making sure that our children are made to go back to school.
“The best way to resolve disputes under the ILO rule is through a social dialogue process that works and that respects collective bargaining agreements. “That will be a lasting option to address some of those issues and disputes and I think it is high time that was done,” he said.
Recall that ASUU has been on strike since February 14 due to the inability of the federal government to meet the union’s demands.
