The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria has announced the suspension of the strike by its members in the Federal Ministry of Education and the Unity Colleges across the country.
This was contained in a statement jointly signed by Dr. Clement Illoh, the Permanent Secretary; Dr. Bello Umar, the Director of Human Resources in the ministry; and Alade Lawal, the ASCSN Secretary General, on Friday in Abuja.
The suspension, according to the statement obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria, is sequel to an agreement reached at a stakeholders’ meeting held on October 15.
It said the meeting, which was chaired by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, agreed on terms of payment of the contentious arrears.
The statement said: “The payment of first batch of 2007 to 2010 promotion arrears has commenced with the sum of N527,643,444 received by the ministry from the Budget Office.
“The sum of N1.7 billion still stands as arrears of promotion and other allowances yet unpaid to affected members of staff of the ministry.”
On the payment of the outstanding arrears, the statement said it was agreed that the payment of the first batch of 2007 to 2010 promotion arrears would be completed on October 17.
It said a task force, drawn from all the stakeholders, will link up with the budget office to pursue the release of the balance of N1.7 billion before the end of the year.
It added: “The outstanding sum of N1.7 billion which covers the balance of 2007 to 2010 promotion arrears, the supplementary promotion arrears for 2011 and promotion arrears for 2012.
“Outstanding salaries for new employees and re-instatement allowance will be paid immediately the sum is released to the Federal Ministry of Education by the budget office.
“The sum of N25 million will be set aside by the Ministry monthly (with effect from September 2014) to offset other allowances owed members of staff.
“These allowances include first 28 days in lieu of hotel accommodation, duty tour allowance, 2010 mandatory training allowance, burial expenses allowance, FTC course allowance, repatriation allowance, among others.”
It said no staff of the ministry, the inspectorate offices and the 104 Federal Unity Colleges will be victimised for taking part in the strike.
NAN reports that ASCSN had on September 22 called out its members on strike over outstanding salary arrears and allowances.