FG resumes deliberations with ASUU

The Federal Government resumed negotiations with the Academic Staff Union of Universities on Tuesday.

The meeting on Tuesday is the second of its kind in the three weeks since academics declared a one-month warning strike.

Academics are demanding better working conditions, the revitalization of public universities, and university autonomy, among other things.

At Tuesday’s meeting, ASUU representatives stated that they were no longer interested in signing a memorandum of understanding.

They demanded action on past agreements.

Meanwhile, Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment, expressed optimism that the impasse would be broken.

Both parties disagreed about who is delaying the evaluation of ASUU’s preferred payroll system, the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS).

While the Minister said the union is delaying the process of finalizing with the  National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) on areas where harmonization is needed, the academics insisted that NITDA was unprepared for them.

Disagreement over a payroll system is one critical factor that the academics have listed for embarking on the latest strike.