Withheld salaries: Workers must use their PVCs to demand better treatment in 2023 elections —NASU

The General Secretary of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Education and Associated Institutions (NASU), Prince Peters Adeyemi, has called on Nigerian workers to use a their Permanent Voters Card (PVC) to vote for candidates that will better their lives.

Adeyemi said that the Federal Government’s seeming refusal to pay withheld salaries of tertiary education workers is a clear indication that workers’ struggle for their rights must continue.

In an interview with Nigerian Tribune, Adeyemi said, “It will generate another round of struggle; that is what it is. And there can’t be no time frame for the struggle for the unpaid salaries because if we take any action now, it will be as if we are trying to destroy the political agenda of the government.

“These politicians/government people are very clever. They give you any name when they know they are not ready to do what they are supposed to do. All attention unfortunately is focused on the elections. The election is just in February. So, we are hoping that Nigerians will use their PVCs wisely, because that looks to be the only option that we have.”

Comrade Adeyemi further said that Nigerian workers are not enjoying the dividends of the decent work the International Labour Organisation (ILO) is preaching and championing.

“When you talk of decent work, what is the interpretation of decent work? Decent work means that the environment you work in must be decent. Your salary must be decent, your conditions of service must be decent. You must have a progressive scheme of service that will take you from this level to the other level. Where all of that is absent, there is not decent work. Unfortunately, this is a typical Nigerian system.

“Decent work in an indecent society, in an indecent working environment, with an indecent pay, with an indecent condition of service, leaves you with struggle,” he said.

On who won between the Federal Government and the academic unions in the protracted strike that rocked the tertiary education sector in 2022, Prince Adeyemi said, “The Nigerian people lost. It is a lose-lose for all sides. Because the morale of the workers has been dropping.

“Government needs to do some damage control because the workers went on strike legitimately. The application of ‘no work, no pay’ cannot just be exercised in abstract.

“Strike has not been outlawed in our country. I am not aware. At least, I am one of the seasoned labour leaders in this country. I am not aware that strikes have been outlawed. And when strikes are not outlawed, it then means that if you do an incredible strike, a strike confirmed with the rules, that law of ‘no work, no pay’ cannot be allowed.”

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