University workers have threatened to go on an indefinite strike due to the continuous furore on IPPIS, amidst the Covid19 lockdown and even after the reopening of schools nationwide.
University workers, under the aegis Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, have written the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, threatening indefinite strike action over purported inconsistencies in their salaries due to the deployment of the Integrated Payment and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
In the letter dated May 15, The SSANU National President, Samson Ugwoke, told Ngige that after three months of salary payment through the IPPIS, the platform failed to meet its expectations and seemed to justify โthe position of a section of the university staff that had vehemently opposed the introduction to the university system in the first place.โ
The letter read, โAfter three instalments of salary payment and going into the fourth month, we regret to inform you that the IPPIS has not met the expectations of our members.
โThe observed shortcomings include muddling up of salary payments which have led to underpayments in many instances and over and multiple payments in other instances, wrongful interpretation and implementation of extant document on statutory deductions, non-issuance of pay slips for three months running, non-implementation and even withdrawal of extant allowances as agreed in the FGN/SSANU 2009 agreement; non-payment of arrears of the new national minimum wage.
โWe further write to inform you that failure to resolve the issues above, SSANU will not issue any further notice of a total and indefinite industrial strike action to the government after the universities reopen from the present lockdown.โ