Felix Ikem, Nsukka
National President, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Biodun Ogunyemi, has said the union would stop work should the Federal Government halt the payment of salaries of members over issues pertaining to the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
Ogunyemi stated this in Nsukka, yesterday, at a press briefing after addressing ASUU members at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN).
He said he was in UNN to brief, interact and share ideas with members on recent developments in the union waring that public universities would lose their autonomy if they were enrolled in IPPIS.
“ASUU will continue to say no to IPPIS, and if the Federal Government stops our salary we will stop work because the autonomy of public universities is at stake, that is why ASUU is protesting against PPIS.
“IPPIS is an instrument by government to erode the autonomy of public universities and we are resolute on our stand,” he said.
He said there was a better and alternative payroll platform that is university-friendly provided by ASUU and better than IPPIS for the government to adopt noting that “IPPIS is not flexible enough to reflect all the flexibilities in University.”
He said it was unacceptable, as contained in IPPIS, for a vice chancellor to take permission from the Head of Service of the Federation before employing academic staff.
“Why the university all the world is autonomous is because it can recruit academic staff it needs at any point in time. IPPIS will deny the university many things, which will be against their autonomy. You can imagine a situation where a professor stops going for sabbatical because of IPPIS.”
Ogunyemi commended UNN ASUU members assuring that ASUU national body was working hard for the best interest of members