Healthcare professionals in federal universities have threatened to sue the leadership of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) over their alleged exclusion from the payment of Consolidated Non-Teaching Tools Allowance (CONTTA) arrears.
The workers, under the Coalition of Healthcare Professionals in Tertiary Education Institutions in Nigeria (CHPTEIN), gave the unions until November 16 to address their grievances or face a representative class-action suit at the National Industrial Court.
The coalition said it served a 21-day pre-action notice on the unions on October 26, accusing them of failing to protect thousands of clinical, nursing, laboratory, pharmaceutical and allied healthcare workers who were financial members of the unions.
The dispute centres on the exclusion of workers earning salaries under the Consolidated Health Salary Structure and Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) from the CONTTA payments, which some university administrations reportedly restricted to staff on the Consolidated Tertiary Institutions Salary Structure (CONTISS).
However, the coalition cited an October 16 circular from the Federal Ministry of Education, which it said clarified that the allowance was meant for all non-teaching staff, regardless of their union affiliation.
The circular stated that funds released to federal universities were intended to cover all non-teaching employees, irrespective of their union membership.
It also warned that vice-chancellors and other university chief executives who failed to implement the agreement could face administrative sanctions.
CHPTEIN said at least 13 universities, including the University of Ibadan, University of Port Harcourt and University of Abuja, had mapped CONHESS and CONMESS salary grades to their CONTISS equivalents and paid affected healthcare workers.
The coalition accused some university bursary departments of pressuring health workers to abandon their existing salary structures and migrate to CONTISS before receiving the allowance.
It also faulted SSANU and NASU for allegedly abandoning healthcare professionals despite collecting their check-off dues and benefiting from their contributions to collective bargaining.
The workers demanded that the unions publish a joint statement in at least two national newspapers affirming their entitlement to the allowance, irrespective of their salary structures.
They also want the unions to issue directives to university authorities against compelling healthcare workers to migrate to CONTISS and instruct their local branches to pursue administrative grievances where payments are withheld.
CHPTEIN warned that failure to meet its demands by November 16 would trigger legal action, including claims for refunds of union dues deducted from affected workers' salaries.
It said it would also seek court orders compelling the universities to map the workers' salary grades appropriately and pay their outstanding allowances.
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