The Federal Government yesterday insisted that university lecturers would not be paid for work not done in line with its ‘no work no pay’ policy.
The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, restated this while commenting on the protest of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) over pro-rata October salary payment.
ASUU had, last month, called off its eight-month-old strike following the intervention of the speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila.
However, the union members got half salaries, which the government call pro-rata, at the end of October.
Addressing State House reporters after the Federal Executive Council meeting, Adamu said the position of the government was that the lecturers “would not be paid for work not done.”
He said: “The strike has been called off and the government has paid them what is due to them. I think that’s the position of the government; that it’s not going to pay anyone for work not done and they only did, I think, the number of days that they were paid.”
Asked if the government would take steps to assuage the ASUU to avoid further hostilities, he said: “I don’t understand, is there any problem now?”
Adamu said he was not aware of the ASUU’s planned work-free-day.
The minister also reacted to the allegation made by the President of he faulted the claim by ASUU President Prof. Emmanuel Osodoke, that paying the lecturers on prorata basis was a ploy to make them casual workers.
On the claim by Osodoke that ASUU only had an agreement with the Minister of Education and the speaker of the House of Representatives, not with the Minister of Labour, Adamu said: “I cannot add any light on something that I did not know.”
