The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) says it will
“never” accept the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) for
the payment of lecturers’ entitlements.
Chris Piwuna, the union’s vice-president, said this on
Wednesday when he featured on a ‘Twitter Spaces’ conversation organised by
PREMIUM TIMES.
He also said despite the appeal by Femi Gbajabiamila,
speaker of the house of representatives, for the union’s withheld salaries to
be paid, the lecturers have not been paid.
The federal government had said it would apply the ‘no work,
no pay’ rule for the period of the strike by the university lecturers.
ASUU went on strike in February over government’s failure to
implement its demands on salaries and allowances of lecturers, improved funding
for universities, as well as the adoption of the University Transparency and
Accountability Solution (UTAS) against the federal government’s preferred
payment platform — Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
The federal government had said the adoption of more than
one payment platform would lead to additional costs, which the government
cannot afford to take on.
Speaking on the ‘Twitter Spaces’ conversation, Piwuna said
the union’s stance on IPPIS will not change.
“We are not accepting
that IPPIS in any shape or form. ASUU will never accept IPPIS on our campuses,”
he said.
“Autonomy of Nigerian university is our problem, not the
peculiarities in IPPIS. The office of the head of service of the federation has
taken over the work of the university governing councils and vice-chancellors.
We are asking that they take their hands off the universities.”
He added that ASUU would still explore legal options
regarding the strike, which was recently called off following a judgment by the
appeal court.
“Our lawyers will continue to argue our case in court and we
believe that the continuation of the case in court is very important for the
labour movement in this country,” he said.
“And in the response
of our lawyers, they had to raise issues of agreement that have not been kept
and all of that.
“We are interested in the court case. We are hoping that the
judges will listen and they are watching the government and they can say ASUU
is nothing other than a respectable union that has respect for the court.”
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