By Jimoh Balogun, Ado Ekiti
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has vowed to resume its strike if the Federal Government does not pay outstanding promotion arrears owed its members and address the issue of employment racketeering allegedly perpetrated through the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
The Union which disclosed this in a statement released on Thursday said it was “seriously concerned” that its members were owed several months of promotion arrears arising from distortions traceable to the forceful enrollment of academics on the IPPIS platform.
The union added that the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation has failed to address the issue despite several efforts by ASUU and university administrations.
ASUU expressed concern about reports of massive employment racketeering allegedly perpetuated by operators of the ‘discredited’ IPPIS, including “scandalous revelations” at the recent sittings of the House of Representatives’ Probe Panel on IPPIS.
The union said the ugly development has eroded the university employment tradition, which also violates the provisions of the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2003, and Guidelines for Appointments and Promotions of individual universities.
ASUU called on the Federal Government to ensure the immediate release of backlog of promotion arrears to its members and to take steps to address the issue of employment racketeering through the IPPIS.
The union threatened that it would resume its strike if the government does not take action on these issues.
