…No Hope for Minimum Wage

…Unions Plan Strike Action

By Amaechi Agbo

As staff of the Enugu State University of Science and Technology, ESUT, vacate for the Yuletide Celebrations on Friday, they will be going home with their December Salary, ESUT Monitor can authoritatively report.

This comes as the management of the university is working round the clock to ensure that the workers’ salary is paid on or before the close of work on Friday, December 20, when the university is expected to shut down for the Christmas and New Year festivities

Although our impeccable sources within the echelon of the University hierarchy confirmed that the salary will be paid this week, this paper further gathered that the ESUT Workers would not get the ₦80, 000 new approved minimum wage in the state which the State Government has not started implementing.

It’s further gathered that the unions in ESUT are gearing for a showdown with the university management and the Enugu State Government due to what they perceived as “uncomfortable, poor condition of service and neglect”.

While the cheering news that salary would be paid not later than Friday this week enlivens the mind, tension is already mounting as unions in the university including ASUU, NAAT, SSANU, and NASU are seriously considering industrial action to press home their needs and “force” the state government to act in their interest.

For instance, the national body of National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT, last week directed all their branches across the country in states that have not implemented the new minimum wage to “immediately join the Nigeria Labour Congress in its ongoing state-by-state strike”

National Secretary of the union, Abubakar Yusuf, read the directive to branch unions during the union’s 57th National Executive Council, NEC meeting held between December 4 and 5 at the University of Ibadan, Oyo State.

Just last week, the Joint Action Committee, JAC in ESUT issued a two-page statement threatening to invoke industrial action if the conditions of service in the university is not looked into.

Speaking on the developments, the Registrar of the University, Chief Ambrose Ugwu, said the management is not unaware of the recent issues including the none implementation of the new minimum wage.

While confirming that salaries would be paid this week, Chief Ugwu said the management is worried that the Enugu State Government has started implementing the new minimum wage in some ministries and parastatals excluding ESUT.

On the reported industrial action by unions on campus, the University Scribe said the management has not received official communication from the unions but expressed management’s readiness to sustain the industrial harmony in the university.

“The management is aware of the concerns you raised. We are not sleeping because we are also affected. Do not forget that we are part of the workers. We receive our salaries the way every staff receive theirs every month. Salaries for December will be paid before we go on vacation on Friday. That I can assure you.

“We are worried that the new minimum wage has not been implemented. I understand it has been implemented in other ministries but ESUT is not involved. We are leaving no stones unturned in this regard. Including the palliative that’s being paid since last year.

“On the issue of industrial action by unions, officially the management is not aware of any threat but we absolutely understand the plights of our staff and we are doing everything to improve on it. We have continued to enjoy industrial harmony in ESUT and we are going to see that it is sustained.

“Part of the reason the management is going out of its way to pay salary earlier is to enable the workers celebrate the Christmas and New Year festivities the best way possible,” Chief Ambrose Ugwu told ESUT Monitor in an exclusive interview over the weekend.