The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige has disclosed that federal government has officially registered two new academic unions in the Nigerian Universities as trade unions.
Ngige who disclosed this while officially presenting the Certificate of Registration to the two unions in Abuja maintained that the move was in line with the law of the land in the face of the crisis rocking the universities.
The newly registered unions are the Congress of Nigerian University Academics (CONUA), a breakaway faction of ASUU and the Nigeria Association of Medical and Dental Lecturers in Academics (NAMDA).
The Minister stated that the two associations will exist side by side with ASUU in Nigerian universities in the spirit and tenets of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Core Convention nos. 87 & 98, which are respectively on freedom of association and protection of the right to organise, and the right to organise and collective bargaining; as well as the enthronement.
He siad, “The Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment in the discharge of her mandate in the management of employment relationships and the administration of trade unions to ensure harmonious industrial relations system in the nation has decided to approve the registration of two more trade unions in the Nigerian university academic sub-sector.
“The university sub-sector is a major development plank of any nation’s socio-economic growth. Knowledge they say is power.
“In the last eight months, the classrooms in the nation’s public universities have been shut and students kept at home by the strike action embarked upon by the ASUU and this ugly situation has persisted despite a series of engagements to resolve the trade dispute by the federal government through the Federal Ministry of Education.
“In line with the provisions of the Trade Disputes Act, CAP TS, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, this strike was apprehended and conciliations were done in this ministry on February 22, 2022, and March 1, 2022.
“However, all efforts at conciliation failed, resulting in the transmission of the trade dispute to the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) for adjudication in line with the statutory trade dispute resolution processes.
“At the NICN, an interlocutory injunction order was obtained asking the Union to get back to work while the substantive suit is being heard; an order ASUU leadership and members refused to obey.
“Interestingly, a lot of university teachers in the public universities had indicated their willingness to get back to work while negotiations continue,” Ngige said.