The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, has said that it is illegal for university workers to embark on their planned strike.
Ngige disclosed this while addressing State House journalists after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Friday.
The Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) as well as the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU), had given notice of an indefinite strike, to start midnight of February 5, if the government failed to address about seven points demand they made.
Ngige asked NASU and SSANU to give the government three months so that it will forward a supplementary budget to the National Assembly to cover arrears of the minimum wage that had not been paid to them, saying the government had apprehended the strike by engaging on social dialogue with the unions.
The minister said the planned industrial action is a flagrant violations of the ILO Statute on Social Dialogue and Principles at work.
