The Federal Government has said it would pay about N34bn minimum wage consequential adjustments to education sector workers with effect from 2019.
The beneficiaries include the members of the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities and their counterparts in the polytechnics and Colleges of Education.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, disclosed this on Tuesday while responding to questions from labour correspondents in Abuja on the prolonged ASUU strike.
The union had embarked on strike over the non-implementation of various agreements signed by the Federal Government. The union leadership had said it would not call off the industrial action until its demands were met.
But Ngige said the universities would get N23.5bn, polytechnics N6bn and the Colleges of Education N4bn, totalling about N34bn.
Regarding the ASUU strike, the minister said the committees set up during the last tripartite plus meeting of the government and university-based unions were given a fortnight to turn in their reports which they were still working on.
He added that the reports of the committees were being expected this weekend.
He said, “Those committees are working. The one on National Information Technology Development Agency is testing the three platforms-the government’s Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System, the University Transparency Accountability Solution of ASUU and the Universities Peculiar Personnel Payroll System of the non-teaching staff.
“They started the testing last Thursday. The National Salaries Incomes and Wages Commission has issued their amendment circulars. The unions also have copies to take care of responsibility and hazard allowances wherever it has not been properly captured.”
Ngige assured that there might be wage adjustments as the government intensifies efforts to streamline wages through the NSIWC.
He appealed to ASUU and other unions to suspend their strike so that academic activities could resume in public universities across the country.
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