The Federal Government’s check-off dues deducted from university lecturers’ November 2022 salaries were not remitted to the Academic Staff Union of Universities, The Benuepost.com has learned.
The amount deducted from an employee’s pay for membership in a union or organization that represents workers in a specific industry is known as the check-off due.
The chairman of the Federal University of Technology, Minna chapter of ASUU, Prof Gbolahan Bolarin, confirmed that the government failed to remit the check-off dues for November.
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Bolarin said, “Despite the pro-rata salaries that were paid for the month of November, those who got their pay slips observed that check-off dues and cooperative dues were deducted, but the issue now is that the account of ASUU was not credited.
“The government credited the cooperatives but refused to credit ASUU. Now, this is the question: since you claimed you paid us pro-rata, from where did you deduct the check-off and cooperative dues? And since the check-off dues were deducted, why wasn’t ASUU’s account credited? You deducted union dues from the source, but you failed to credit the union.”
In an interview with Punch correspondent, the Ministry of Labour and Employment’s spokesperson, Olajide Oshundun, justified the government’s decision on check-off dues.
Oshundun said, “Constitutionally, there is a provision of the Trade Union Act (Section 37, Subsection 1) that says every year ASUU must render an account of money remitted to the body. All ASUU members get a monthly deduction, which is usually given to ASUU every month to run their secretariat.
“They are also required to submit an audited report on this money every year, but ASUU failed to do so for four years in a row.”
“The ministry wrote to ASUU, asking why they hadn’t submitted the audited report of monies collected for the previous four years. ASUU received the letter but did not respond. They didn’t even write to acknowledge the letter’s receipt. ASUU was then sent a reminder letter, which was also ignored.”
“Then the ministry decided that the check-off amount due, deducted by IPPIS for November, should not be released to ASUU. So, when they respond and explain how they spent the money released, IPPIS will release the funds.”
However, Bolarin criticized the ministry’s stance on the audit report.
He insisted that ASUU had submitted the aforementioned report.