Respite came the way of government-owned university students as striking Academic Staff Union of Universities and the Federal Government came to the middle line with the government acceding to requests of the union.
After protracted negotiations and foot-dragging, the Federal Government on Friday accepted the demand by the Academic Staff Union of Universities that they are exempted from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System.
The government also shifted grounds on a number of issues, reading out the communique at the end of a seven-hour negotiation with ASUU members in Abuja, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, said the government also agreed to ASUU’s demand to pay their members’ salary arrears from February to June through the old salary payment platform, Government Integrated Financial and Management Information System.
He stated, “We are also reviewing how the lecturers will be paid on the old platform until UTAS is ready for usage.
“We agreed also that the withheld salaries are the component of the issue of ‘no work, no pay’ that was invoked and the Minister of Education and myself are working on that to get approval for the lifting of the embargo.
