Why NASU suspended strike in Colleges of Education, by Adeyemi

THE General Secretary of the Non- Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) Peter Adeyemi,has pointed out at the need for the creation of conducive atmosphere for the new Minister of Education, Ibrahim Shekarau informed the suspension of the strike action embarked upon by the non-academic staff of Colleges of Education.
   Speaking in Abuja at the weekend on the suspension of the strike which took effect from yesterday (Monday), the NASU scribe said it would be unwise for the union to continue the strike while efforts are on to resolve the issues in contention.
  His explanation: “The new Minister of Education, Ibrahim Shekarau said he is willing to comprehensively deal with the crises in the Colleges of Education but added that he cannot do that without the schools reopened. He made known to us that our returning to work will strengthen his hand in dealing with the matters we are agitating for. It is therefore our position that with that spirit, we want to give him the benefit of doubt. We also do not want to strengthen the hand so of those who have erroneously misinformed the President that we were on strike because the opposition political party sponsored us. Our interest is simply the strengthening of the institutions where we work. We want our Colleges of Education to be the best not only in African but also in the world. We wanted those working in these colleges to be adequately motivated and remunerated in order to produce maximally for the benefit of our country.
  “The view of this meeting therefor is that we should give the new Minister of Education and government the benefit of doubt by suspending the strike embarked upon by NASU members throughout the country for ninety days so that we can then have the environment to settle the areas of disagreement with the government.”
   Adeyemi stressed that the strike was suspended believing that no member of NASU will be victimized for participating in the strike and the payment of all outstanding salaries.
  He listed the grievances of the union to include migration of officers from CONTISS 15, which was done about five years ago and that of other categories of workers migrated from level 12 to 15.

  “Thereafter, it was the turn of migrating those from 11 and below for which we have concluded all that is needed to be done. It is noteworthy to say here that our counterparts in the polytechnics have not only begun implementation of the migration but have also commenced payment. Whereas both the polytechnics and Colleges of Education have been working together on this, our counterparts in the polytechnics have been enjoying this while the implementation has not even been approved for the Colleges of Education. One of our demands is that government should issue a circular for the implementation of migration for our members from CONTISS 11 and below.”
 The second issue is the review of condition of service.
   Adeyemi submitted the terms and conditions of service in the Colleges of Education is due for review after the union carried out a comprehensive review of the condition of service, which have been submitted to the office of the Head of Service for final approval.
NASU also pointed out the decision of government to start the implementation of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) with the Colleges of Education while withholding implementation in the universities and polytechnics even when all the institutions run the same payment system, saying, “We observed that there are peculiarities in the Colleges of Education that have to be put into consideration before designing any system for us.”
NASU also frowned at the inadequate funding of Colleges of Education.
   He added: “We insisted that there must be an intervention fund just as there is in the universities.”
  The union is not also happy with some state government that have not sanctioned the implementation of 65 retirement age for non-academic staff in the Colleges of Education.
  “We also reached an agreement on the 65 years retirement age for our members. But some state governments have reneged on this agreement. We insisted that the state government must implement the 65-retirement age we have with the Federal Government,” he said.
  With the coming of Ibrahim Shekarau as the new Minister of Education, Adeyemi expressed optimism that most of the industrial disagreements in the Colleges of Education will soon be addressed going by the enthusiasm that the Minister has shown.
source: http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/appointments/171766-why-nasu-suspended-strike-in-colleges-of-education-by-adeyemi

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