The National Industrial Court sitting in Abuja, on Monday, slated September 21 to rule on the application for an interlocutory injunction brought before it by the Federal Government against the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The court fixed the date after counsel to the Federal Government, James Igwe (SAN), argued his application, which seeks a court order restraining ASUU from further continuing with the ongoing nationwide strike.
The Federal Government, through the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, had approached the court to challenge the ongoing strike embarked upon by the university lecturers since February, this year.
Igwe had asked the court to give the suit an accelerated hearing due to the urgency of the matter to enable students to return to school, adding that since the matter was already in court, it would be proper for the strike to be called off pending the determination of the suit.
But counsel to ASUU, Femi Falana (SAN) said, the union was currently meeting with stakeholders to ensure that the matter was resolved and appealed to the government to cooperate with the union to resolve the issue.
The Federal Government had dragged the union before the Court to look into the legality or otherwise of the ongoing prolonged strike by ASUU leadership and members and to also, interpret in its entirety, the provisions of Section 18 LFN 2004, especially as it applies to the cessation of strike once a trade dispute is apprehended by the Minister of Labour and Employment and conciliation is ongoing.
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In the suit dated September 8, the Federal Government is praying the court to, among other reliefs, determine whether ASUU members are entitled to emoluments or ‘strike pay’ during their period of strike, which commenced on February 14, 2022, more so in view of the national law as provided in Section 43 of the TDA and the International Labour Principles on the right to strike as well as the decisions of the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association on the subject.
“Determine whether ASUU has the right to embark on strike over disputes as is the case in this instance by compelling the Federal Government to employ its own University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) in the payment of the wages of its members as against the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) universally used by the Federal Government in the nation for payment of wages of all its employees in the Federal Government Public Service of which university workers, including ASUU members, are part of or even where the government, via NITDA, subjected ASUU and their counterpart, Universities Peculiar Personnel Payroll Systems (UPPPS) software to integrity test (vulnerability and stress test) and they failed.”
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