The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, has once again absolved himself and his ministry of the ongoing strike action.
He said his ministry’s responsibility was only to serve as a conciliator between the various government bodies and its employees and not a direct employer of the unions.
Briefing journalists on the observance of the 19th National Productivity Day and Conferment of the National Productivity Order of Merit (NPOM) Award by the President, he called on members of ASUU to call off their indefinite strike and resume work while the government continues to address their demands.
He also urged the government side to expedite action on the renegotiation of the conditions of service of the university workers, so that it could have a working document with ASUU.
“As a ministry, we are not the direct employers of ASUU teachers, lecturers, teachers. Whether they are in polytechnics or colleges of education, or university. We are not their direct employer in the federal ministry of Labour and Employment. We have desks in various ministries, and when the employees have issues with their employers, the labour desk there, advises them on how to handle such issues but when they fall, the union will now write and inform us that negotiations have broken down and that they will proceed on industrial action. When that happens, we normally bring the employer and the employee, (the workers) to this table. We have about 1,683 labour disputes that we have conciliated here since I came and we have been successful.”