NATIONAL President of Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, Comrade Samson Ugwuoke,yesterday, raised the alarm that over 4000 teaching and non teaching staff of University Staff Schools may lose their jobs, if the federal government implements the threat not to pay staff schools salaries anymore.
Making the disclosure in a chat with journalists at the SSANU secretariat, Abuja, Comrade Ugwuoke said the government’s threat is contrary to the agreement it reached with the federal government and affiliate university unions.
He said that the agreement stipulated that government through the University Councils should fully fund university primary schools, while the universities, without recourse to government for funding, would provide infrastructure for their secondary schools.
The SSANU President who was reacting to the statement credited to the Chairman of the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, NSIWU, Chief Richard Egbule, that government would not pay staff schools’ workers salaries, contended that the staff schools in contention were established by statutes and that the workers were duly employed by the University Councils.
Wondering why the government would single out the university staff schools for discrimination when it is still funding the Navy, Army, Air Force, Police staff schools, he said the purported threat would throw many Nigerians into the labour market.
According to him, federal staff schools have about 2000 staff and state university staff schools have over 2000 staff.
He, therefore, appealed to President Buhari to take the right decision and revise the decision, stressing that his union had kept quiet since because the Buhari administration was still on its infancy and that the union has viewed the government as agent of change and was expecting change from it.
He described the policy as anti-people which would affect the outstanding performance of pupils and students of the staff schools.
“We are worried that the NSIWC, which participated in that negotiation could turn around to repudiate the terms of those agreements. Since the agreements have not been renegotiated, it means that the contents remain sacrosanct. We are worried that the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission in concert with the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission intend to sack all the teachers and non-teaching staff in the University Staff Schools and these are our members and bonafide universities’ staff in such schools without recourse to our unions renegotiation.
“It is therefore, worrisome to note that in spite of all the unassailable documentary evidences, some elements within the government circles are still hell bent on repudiating the sanctity of the clause on University Staff Primary Schools in the Unions Agreement.”
