Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja

The  Federal Government has declared the two weeks warning strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) illegal.

Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige stated this while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) said employee cannot dictate to employers.

Ngige said contrary to the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention, ASUU failed  to give the mandatory notice to the government before embarking on strike.

“They didn’t give us the mandatory notice before going on strike. So for a start, this strike is illegal. They said it is a warning striking but there is nothing like warning strike. A strike is withdrawal of services for which you are being paid. Then the question will arise, if you don’t go to work, do you want to be paid? Is it not corruption? So this is the dilemma.”

The minister explained that the bone of contention was the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) which the federal government introduced in 2018 to curb corruption as well as fish out ghost workers in the system.

He said that ASUU agreed with the government that leakages and corruption should be tackled but the peculiarities of their profession prevents them from embracing IPPIS.

He said it would amount to corruption for the University teachers not to teach the students but expect to be paid within the period they were on strike, adding that the government would invoke “no work, no pay” policy.

He, however, said that the union has men of integrity and that they would see reason why the IPPIS policy was necessary.

Ngige said government had agreed to merge both IPPIS and University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) to take care of ASUU’s peculiarity during the last visit to President Buhari, a call ASUU was yet to adhere to.

“This is an old story. This story started two years ago when the first presidential directive was given, for all public servants to be captured on the IPPIS so that the Federal Government will know those that they are paying and to block leakages.