The National Industrial Court of Nigeria has reserved a decision on the substantive application filed by the Federal Government, which challenges the Academic Staff Union of Universities’ eight-month strike, till May 30.
Hon. Justice Benedict Kanyip, the presiding judge, announced the date for decision on Thursday, after the parties in the case adopted their written addresses in the referral NICN/ABJ/270/2022, as previously directed by the court.
The Ministry of Labour noted in a statement that at the latest hearing on Tuesday, May 2, 2023, Justice Kanyip, the President of NICN, ordered the defendants seven days to file a reply on point of law to the Federal Government, the claimants’ substantive case.
The application, together with an affidavit in support, was filed on ASUU and their lawyers in September last year, but they did not file a defense, despite the court’s seven-day deadline last week.
When the matter came up today, ASUU’s main lawyer, Femi Falana SAN, informed the court that they had filed an appeal before the Court of Appeal, challenging its March 18 judgment, which upheld the Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment’s referral.
Falana argued that because they had appealed the verdict, the court should postpone action on the case until the appeal was resolved.
In response, Justice Kanyip informed Falana that an appeal does not result in a stay of execution under Rule 47 of the NICN procedure.
Justice Kanyip reserved judgment for May 30 after hearing the views of counsel in the case.
The Federal Government has requested that the eight-month ASUU strike be declared illegal because it did not obey the law. The government further asks the court to rule that because ASUU was on strike at the time, they were not entitled to any payment under the law, as stated in Section 43 of the Trade Dispute Act, TDA, 2004, “No Work, No Pay” policy, and ILO principles on the right to strike.
