THE Federal Government has released half of November 2022 check-off dues deducted from the salaries of all lecturers of federal universities in the country to the Academic Staff Union of Universities.
The Ministry of Labour and Employment had earlier withheld the check-off dues of the union.
The ministry’s spokesman, Olajide Oshundun, in an interview said the decision of the government was based on the failure of ASUU to submit its audit reports.
The check-off dues are the money deducted from an employee’s pay for membership in a union or an organisation that represents workers in a particular industry.
The chairperson of ASUU, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Prof Gbolahan Bolarin, told one of our correspondents on Sunday that the government remitted half of the money deducted from the salaries of members.
He said, “After a report by The PUNCH, the union received an alert intimating us of the receipt of the check-off dues. However, what we noticed was that we did not receive full payment. Instead, we received less than what was due.
“The funny aspect is that the government made full deductions from the salaries of our members. Our question now to them is where is the balance of the check-off dues?
“You can’t make full deductions and then remit half of what you deducted into the account of the union. The government needs to let us know what they plan to do with the money still with them.”
Efforts to get the comments of the spokesperson of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Oshundun, proved abortive as calls and messages sent to his line remained unanswered as of the time of filing this report.
Meanwhile, branches of ASUU have concluded congresses organised over the recent happenings between the union and the Federal Government.
Some of the recent happenings include the decision of the government to pay the withheld salaries of lecturers under the aegis of the Congress of Nigerian Universities Academics and threats to deregister ASUU as a trade union.
