The National Industrial Court of Nigeria, NICN, sitting in Abuja has directed the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities, ASUU to immediately suspend the industrial action and resume back to work. Justice Polycap Hamman, the presiding judge ruled today that the industrial action was an affront to section 18(1)(2) of Trade Dispute Act that frown the action of the academicians. The Judge posited that the use of “shall” in the Act means a Mandatory provision restraining the industrial action pending the determination of the suit before the court.
The Judge noted that the unabated industrial action has caused a lot of damage to both government and student across the nation.
Meanwhile, Justice Hamman referred the case to the president of the court for reassignment.
Recall vigil360 earlier reported that the ASUU embarked on industrial action since 14h February, 2022 going to eight month now over some demands which include the revisiting of the 2009 agreement between ASUU and federal government.
Other demands of ASUU are that they should be exempted from being captured into the integrated personnel payroll Scheme,IPPIS, a payment platform introduced by the Federal government for all its workers.
The Academicians instead came up with an alternative software call University Transparency and Accountability Solutions, UTAS, demanding that should be adopted by the federal government for the university system, a matter that has not been resolved.
Several efforts by the federal government through the Minister of Education and Minister of labour could not bring the industrial action to a logical conclusion.
Several meetings upon meetings between the two have proved abortive as ASUU and Federal government could not understand themselves.
This has made the federal government approached the industrial court for the interpretations of labour law that has finally compelled ASUU to return back to work.