Federal Government Reaches New Deal with SSANU and NASU

The Nigerian government has finished talks on the 2009 agreement with the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU). NASU President, Peters Adeyemi, confirmed this to PREMIUM TIMES on Monday.

Mr Adeyemi said the union will share a detailed statement later.

The non-academic staff unions have been complaining about the slow pace of the talks that started in October. Last month, the unions went on strike to protest how slowly things were moving.

A similar deal was reached with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in December, ending a 16-year negotiation process.

Though the agreements were signed separately, they mainly cover the welfare and working conditions for members.

The unions turned down the 30 percent pay increase proposed by the government team, led by Yayale Ahmed, the Pro-Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) in Zaria.

SSANU and NASU demanded a 40 percent pay increase, just like what ASUU received.

Back in 2009, the Nigerian government signed an agreement with various workers' unions in universities, including ASUU, SSANU, and NASU. This agreement included details about workers' pay and conditions. It was supposed to be renegotiated every three years, but it has been delayed for many years, leading to several strikes in public universities.

In December, the government finished the renegotiation with ASUU after the sixth renegotiation committee, which started working in October, wrapped up the talks.

Still, the non-academic staff unions have always claimed that the government treats them unfairly compared to the academic unions during negotiations.

For example, SSANU and NASU's agreement was only finalized six months after ASUU's, even though both were handled by the same committee led by Mr Ahmed.