The three-month nationwide strike by the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) has been suspended. After the NAAT National Executive Council meeting on Thursday in Abuja, Comrade Ibeji Nwokoma, the union’s national president, made this announcement to reporters. Nwokoma stated that NAAT began its strike on March 21, 2022, to press home its demands, which include, among others, the incomplete implementation of the FGN/NAAT 2009 agreement, the withholding of the enabling circular for the implementation of CONTISS 14, and 15 for academic technologists, and the non-payment of arrears of Earned Academic Allowances to our members.
The NAAT president said that despite rejecting the Federal Government’s “No Work, No Pay” policy, the union was able to obtain promises and resolutions on some of its requests after engaging the government vigorously. The release of enabling circulars on CONTISS 14 and 15, agreements on the payment of arrears of minimum wage/consequential adjustments, the payment of occupational hazard allowance, and the implementation of responsibility allowance, among other things, were among the commitments he listed as having been obtained from the Federal Government.
Regarding the Federal Government of Nigeria’s proposal to apply the No Work, No Pay rule, NAAT completely rejects this in its entirety because the lengthy strike action was not planned by us, but rather as a result of the FGN’s slow response to all of the underlying problems. It should be mentioned that before beginning the industrial action, NAAT followed all established processes. As a result, NAAT strongly demands that their withheld salary be paid as soon as possible.
It is crucial to note that if all the issues agreed upon with the Honourable Minister of Education on behalf of the Government are not fully resolved at the end of the three-month window period, NAAT will not hesitate to restart the paused strike action without prior notice, according to Nwokoma.
