In a bid to quell agitations and find lasting solutions to concerns raised by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the Federal Government of Nigeria has scheduled another meeting with the leadership of ASUU this Friday.
This hint came from the Office of the Minister of Labour and Employment, headed by Dr. Chris Ngige who happens to be the chief negotiator between the Federal Government and ASUU.
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The meeting which is scheduled to take place at the Conference Hall of the Honourable Minister is expected to address a number of pending issues including an acceptable salary payment platform.
It can be recalled that previous meetings by both parties have constantly ended in stalemates, with the Government being proponents of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) and ASUU, the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).
The Federal Government holds the view that ASUU should be Integrated into the IPPIS before salaries of lecturers can be paid, as the platform is designed to check cases of ghost workers in the system.
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ASUU on the other hand opines that the University Transparency and Accountability Solution system (which is currently undergoing an integrity test by NITDAS) is ideal, and would check cases of salary delay and shortchanging of its members.
Though the Federal Government has agreed to pay 30 billion Naira as earned allowances to ASUU and 20 billion Naira as revitalization fund, ASUU still insists that the Government are yet to meet its demands, and that the strike would not be called of soon if this remains the case.