IPPIS: SSANU fumes over unpaid four months salaries, threatens strike action

THE end appears not to be in sight to the disruption of academic activities at the nation’s universities as the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has threatened to embark on a total and indefinite strike action over unpaid allowances of members.

In a joint statement by the chairman and the secretary of SSANU, University of Benin branch, Comrade Broderick Osewa and Comrade Enoma Aigbovoriuwa respectively after a meeting, SSANU lamented that they are yet to be paid, four months after they enrolled into the compulsory Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

Tribune Online reports that Osewa and Aigbovoriuwa also kicked against the removal of hazard, responsibility, call duty, shift duty allowances among others, which they were paid as part of the Memorandum of Action (MOA) agreement the Federal Government voluntarily entered with SSANU in 2009.

The chairman and scribe alleged that the new payment system has blighted the trust and confidence of the members who enrolled into IPPIS in the last four months, vowing to begin the strike as soon as schools which were shut due to the novel coronavirus pandemic re-open soon.

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According to the association: “The development as shown by the Federal Government through IPPIS has again lent credence to the fact that the Federal Government cannot be trusted, since the unions’ enrolment into IPPIS, the path has been littered with betrayals, resistance, half-truth, and now outright sabotage.

“At present, no university worker knows his or her true salary or take-home pay; IPPIS has brought increased tax regime, delayed salary payments, the introduction of Housing Fund Scheme which ought to be optional, non-remittal of union dues deducted by IPPIS since February 2020 till date.”

The unionists appealed to “the Federal Government to direct IPPIS and the Accountant-General of the Federation to address these irregularities and anomalies immediately, failure of which the members will start a total and indefinite strike action immediately schools re-open.

“As far as the union is concerned and members are concerned, IPPIS has breached our trust and confidence in this whole garbage called IPPIS.”