The Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies (MINILS) has commenced meeting with stakeholders and the government to end various union strikes that have paralyzed academic activities in public universities in the country.
According to the institute, the stakeholders include the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Ministries of Education and Labour, as well as students.
The institute said it had already met with ASUU and had gone through the list of the union’s demands.
“We are including the students in the intervention as they have taken to the roads. This is worrisome,” the institute said.
Director-General of MINILS, Comrade Aremu told reporters in Ilorin that, in every dispute “there are disputes of interest and right. Out of the list of ASUU’s demands, only two are disputes of rights and they are stagnation of salaries since 2009 and refusal of the government to review agreements reached with ASUU since 2009.
“I am with ASUU on these two. We cannot deliver quality education with poorly paid workers. It is unacceptable. I came from a sector in which agreements are reviewed every year. That is the way to increase wages.
“The other demands of poor funding and payment systems are disputes of interest. ASUU needs a different approach to all these.”
