Felix Ikem, Nsukka
Comrade Biodun Ogunyemi National President Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said that the Union will stop work if the Federal Government halts salaries of its members over the issue of Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
Biodun reiterated this in Nsukka on Thursday while speaking with newsmen shortly after addressing ASUU members in University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN).
He said that he was in UNN to brief, interact and share ideas with members on the recent development in the union, he added that public universities will loose her autonomy if they enrolled in IPPIS.
“ASUU will continue to say no to IPPIS and if FG stops our salary we will stop work because the autonomy of public universities is at stake, that was why ASUU is protesting against PPIS.
“IPPIS is an instrument by government to erode the autonomy of public universities in the country, we are resolute on our stand,” he said.
He said that there is better and alternative payroll platform that is university friendly provided by ASUU which is far better than IPPIS.
“IPPIS is not flexible enough to reflect all the flexibilities in University, “he said.
The ASUU boss described as unacceptable a situation whereby a Vice-Chancellor must take permission from head of service of the federation before employing academic staff.
“Why the university all the world are autonomous is because it can recruit academic staff the university needs at any point in time.
“IPPIS will deny university many things which will be against their autonomy, you can imagine a situation where a professor stops going for sabbatical because of IPPIS.”
Biodun, commended UNN ASUU members for coming out in their numbers for the briefing, he assured them that the ASUU National body is working hard for the best interest of all members.