NLC issues four-week ultimatum to government over university strikes

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), representing millions of workers, has issued a four-week ultimatum to the federal government, demanding that it urgently conclude all negotiations with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), who are currently on strike. The NLC also challenged the government’s recent punitive ‘no-work-no-pay’ policy against striking lecturers.
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The recurring strikes by ASUU over salaries, funding, and the non-implementation of collective agreements have long destabilized Nigeria’s public university system.
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‎ASUU is striking over long-unmet demands, including better salaries, university funding, and the implementation of a 2009 collective agreement. In response, the Federal Government has enforced a ‘no-work-no-pay’ policy, withholding lecturers’ salaries for the strike period.
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The NLC’s involvement elevates the conflict, threatening to mobilize Nigerian workers across all sectors in a general strike if the government fails to end the education impasse.
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The labor unions, contend that the government’s failure to honor the signed agreements is the primary cause of the strikes, making the “no-work-no-pay” rule an unfair penalty for a crisis the government themselves instigated.
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The government for so long, views the ‘no-work-no-pay’ rule as an essential legal tool to discourage repeated industrial action, arguing that striking employees cannot legally demand pay for periods when they intentionally withhold labor.
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If the government fails to conclude negotiations within the four-week timeframe, the entire Nigerian economy faces the threat of a large-scale strike, placing immense pressure on the new administration to find a lasting solution to the lingering educational crisis.