Activities were halted Friday at the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State after members of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the Non-teaching Staff Unions joined their counterparts across the country on a three-day protest.
The shutdown was in protest against the Federal government’s proposed sharing formula of the Earned Allowances for the universities staff.
Also Read: NASU, SSANU protest spread to Enugu, Abia States
A document cited by AIT on the contentious sharing formula indicates that while the Academic Staff Unions of Universities, ASUU will take seventy-five percent of the funds released by the Federal government, the other three Non-teaching unions will share twenty-five percent of the allowances, a position NASU and SSANU vowed to resist.
The local branch Chairman of the Non-Academic Staff Union, NASU, Ohambele Ifeanyi and the Chairperson of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, Dorathy Oraonye explained that the protest is to let the government know that the proposed sharing formula is unacceptable to the unions.
The Unions also kicked strongly against the Federal Government’s refusal to pay arrears of the minimum wage consequential adjustments as agreed at a meeting in August.
However, the unions did not state in clear terms what their next line of action will be should the federal authorities fail to reconsider the sharing formula.
Editor: Omor Bazuaye
