The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has lamented the non – payment of arrears of the national minimum wage to its members.

It also urged the Federal Government to pay the October and November backlog of the N35,000 wage award to workers in its payroll.

The union said fourteen universities have failed to pay the arrears to its members four years after it was approved by former President Muhammadu Buhari.

The listed the universities to include: Federal University Otuoke; Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike; Federal University, Dutsinma; Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi; Federal University, Gashua, Yobe and Federal University Kashere.

Others are: University of Maiduguri; Modibo Adamawa University, Yola; University of Benin, Benin; College of Medicine, of the University of Lagos, Idi-Araba; University of Calabar; University of Uyo; Federal University of Lafia and Federal University, Lokoja.

In a communiqué issued at the end of its 46th National Executive Council meeting at the Federal University of Technology, Minna and signed by its National President Mohammed Ibrahim the union appealed to the Federal Government to release money for the payment of the arrears.

“NEC in session observed that some of her members are yet to be paid arrears of the National Minimum Wage, which was approved in 2019 despite the efforts of the Union.

“NEC, therefore, calls on the government to, as a matter of urgency, release funds for payment for those omitted in the under listed universities,” the communiqué read.

The union also urged the federal government to release the N50 billion allocated for the payment of the earned allowances of universities and Inter-University Centres workers “without further delay.”

SSANU also demanded the implementation of the approved 25 per cent and 35 per cent increase in the salaries of university workers.

The union said: “Though this proposal is a far cry from the salary increase demanded by SSANU, we regarded it as an award by the government and therefore expected that the award should have been implemented by now.”

NEC, therefore, demands the implementation of this wage increase, which had been captured in the budget before the end of 2023, pending the conclusion of the renegotiation with the government on the mutually acceptable salary wage.”

“This is with a view to forestall the complicated problems that plagued the use of IPPIS,” it said. (The Nation)

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