CONUA Urges FG  to Pay Members’withheld Salaries

Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo

The Congress of University Academics (CONUA), yesterday called on the federal government to pay its members their withheld salaries without delay.

The CONUA also stated that since it did not declare the strike as such, lumping its members together with a “No Work No Pay” policy as the federal government must be a mistake.

A statement that was jointly issued by both the National President of CONUA, Dr. Niyi Sunmonu; the National Secretary of CONUA, Dr. Henry Oripeloye and the National Publicity Secretary of CONUA, Dr. Ernest Nwoke, and made available to THISDAY in Osogbo yesterday from its national secretariat, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, stated categorically that CONUA was never on strike and this being the case, the issue of “No Work No Pay” ought not apply to its members.

They stated that “CONUA members were only unable to perform their full duties because of the lock-out as the students were asked to vacate the universities and the system was shut down.”

The statement noted that “accordingly, Section 43 (1b) of the Trade Disputes Act CAP. T8, stated “where any employer locks out his workers, the workers shall be entitled to wages and any other applicable remuneration for the period of the lock-out and the period of the lock-out shall not prejudicially affect any rights of the workers being rights dependent on the continuity of period of employment.”

The statement made it cleared that the October salary paid by federal government to CONUA members on pro-rata basis is legally inapplicable to the members.

Therefore, the union called on the federal government to pay the backlog of its members’ salaries from March to September 2022, in addition to what was cut off from there October 2022 salaries.

The union, however, urged federal government to act on this rightful demand immediately, the statement added.