The Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities and other Associated Institutions (NASU) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU), have designed a payment platform called University General Peculiar Payroll Payment System (UGPPPS), for the payment of their salaries; in place of the controversial Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) the platform, earlier introduced by the Federal Government for the payment of all public service workers.
This proposition rivals that of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which had also brought its IPPIS alternative called the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).
The unions informed the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, even as the Federal Government set up a five-man committee to resolve the inconsistencies in payment of salaries of the non-academic staff members of universities under the IPPIS.
They told the Minister during their meeting with the Federal Government, on Tuesday, that they have developed their own payment platform which they expect would address the needs of the University system.
The platform, named the University General Peculiar Payroll Payment System, (UGPPPS), according to the unions would cater for the peculiarities required in the payment of salaries in the university system.
Ngige said the government is favourably disposed to any research that can assist to fine-tune the payment system.
However, as part of the conclusions reached at the meeting between the Federal Government and the leadership of NASU and SSANU, on the alleged failure of the government to address their concerns over the IPPIS, the Federal Government has set up a five-man committee to resolve the inconsistencies in payment of their salaries under the platform.
The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of SSANU and NASU had gone on a 14-day warning strike from October 5 – October 19 to call the attention of the Federal Government to their demands.
Presenting the conclusions at the end of the meeting, Minister for Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, said the Committee would examine holistically the complaints of the unions on inconsistencies in their payments by the IPPIS.
The Committee, with two weeks to conclude its assignment, would ensure that IPPIS worked with the Unions to identify and pay those who had not been paid; and would also identify, for the purpose of payment, those whose check-off dues had been deducted but not remitted.
To facilitate the work of the Committee, the unions were requested to forward the necessary data to IPPIS, as well as submit the necessary documents on the issue of welfare, to assist IPPIS to make deductions, on or before Friday, October 23, 2020.
The membership of the five-man committee is drawn from National Salaries Income and Wages Commission (NSIWC), Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, IPPIS, National Universities Commission (NUC) and Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF).
Regarding the other issues raised by the Unions, the meeting agreed that the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) would compute the arrears of minimum wage from April 2019 – January 2020 and forward to the Federal Ministry of Education to process for payment through the Federal Ministry of Finance. A timeline of two weeks was given.
On the matter of non-payment of earned allowances, the meeting resolved that the recipients of the N30 billion, earlier agreed on with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), would include all the Unions in the University Sector – the National Association of Academic Technologist (NAAT), NASU, and SSANU.
The meeting also agreed that all the Unions would work with the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF), the NUC and the Federal Ministry of Education to achieve that by the end of December 2020.
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