The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) has threatened to embark on a strike following challenges experienced by its members with the implementation of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

Anderson Ezeobe, President of ASUP, while addressing journalists in Abuja on Friday, said the National Executive Council (NEC) of the union has directed various chapters to hold Congresses with a view to taking drastic decisions on the way forward on the issue.

Ezeobe accused the government of insincerity, noting that it has failed to address the union’s grievances.

“We can’t be giving an ultimatum and be repeating an ultimatum; we decided to go back to our congress to take a referendum because we have to educate our congress,” he said.

“We understand that the pandemic has altered a lot of dynamics and so with the feedback we get from our members, we can come back and say, we are shutting down or giving a particular date. So we are waiting for directives that will come from our congress.”

On the proposed resumption of schools, the ASUP leader said the union would hold the government responsible “if anything happens to our members and the polytechnic community.”

This is coming shortly after the Joint Action Committee of Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) commenced a 14-day warning strike Monday over the inconsistencies of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) in the payment of salaries and the non-payment of earned allowances to their members.

As part of its reasons for embarking on strike since March, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has outrightly rejected the IPPIS citing the same reason by SSANU and NASU.

ASUU is however asking the government to adopt in paying its members, the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), the one it developed as a replacement of IPPIS.