ASUU STRIKE: NLC, TUC support ASUU’s fresh demand, urge FG to comply nlc-president...

The President of the Trade Union Congress, Mr. Boboi Kaigama, and the Acting General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Mr. Chris Uyot, on Monday, called on the Federal Government to accede to the demand of striking university lecturers by paying their salary arrears from July to October, 2013. Both Kaigama and Uyot, who spoke in different telephone interviews with our correspondent, said the issue at stake was too serious for the government to endanger with a minor issue as the withholding of the salaries of the striking lecturers.
Kaigama said the lecturers should have been paid their salaries as the five-month old strike did not mean that they were no longer entitled to their salaries.
He explained that the lecturers went on strike because the Federal Government failed to implement the 2009 agreement reached with the university lecturers.
He added that it was not their fault that the lecturers embarked on the industrial action, saying the story would have been different if it was ASUU that violated the terms of the agreement.
He said, “It is okay, they are supposed to be paid their salaries; when one is on strike, it does not mean that he cannot be paid his or her salary.
“They went on strike because an agreement, that was negotiated with the government, has not been fulfilled. The government should pay them their salaries. The situation would have different if they are the ones that reneged on the agreement.”