The leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics at the Osun State Polytechnic, Iree, has warned that the lecturers will not call off their ongoing indefinite strike until the institution’s management pays them their entitlements.
The ASUP chapter of the polytechnic has been on an indefinite strike over unpaid “peculiar, medical, and hazard allowances.”
The Publicity Secretary of the union, Comrade K. O Alimi, said in an interview that the strike was an internal industrial action directed to the school management for failing to pay the lecturers’ allowances since April 2016.
The feedback from our people is that we should not call off the strike until the payment is made
According to Alimi, the institution’s authorities stopped the payment of the allowances, which they started in 2011, on the grounds of the economic recession in the country then.
He said the management promised to continue the payment of the allowances and the arrears immediately the country recovered from the recession.
“At the end of this June, it will be 26 months outstanding of that balance of the salary tagged “Peculiar, Medical, and Hazard.” Our people thought it wise that this is getting too much and, at least, they should pay part of the money,” he said.
Alimi disclosed that ASUP ended the warning strike it embarked upon in January, when the school management told the union that they had included the allowances in the 2018 budget; and promised that the payment of the allowances would commence five months ago, after which the union and the management would sit to discuss how the arrears would be paid.
He said, “But unfortunately, when we approached the management, they said that our chairman should call the Chairman, Governing Council. When he called the chairman, governing council, the chairman told ASUP chairman that Mr. Governor said he was not aware of anything like that.
“We gave the school management one week strike notice; they refused it. Thirty days after, we gave them another strike notice, they also refused it. Recently, we gave them 15 day notice of strike, they also refused it. They didn’t even call us for any meeting not until we declared the strike.’’
He disclosed that the state government directed the institutions owned by the state to pay these allowances from their internally generated revenue, which necessitated the increment of the school fees paid by the students from about N32,000 to N65,000.
Alimi added that the union had met with the school management and the governing council, and they had appealed to the union to call off the strike.
He also disclosed that the management pleaded with them to wait until the state government approved this year’s budget.
According to him, the school management said they would not pay out such a huge amount of allowances when the state government had yet to approve the 2018 budget.
Alimi said, “The feedback from our people is that we should not call off the strike until the payment is made. The argument of our people is that if the management can source for the money to purchase fleet of cars for the members of the management just about a month ago now without Mr. Governor approving the budget. They know how they manoeuvre to get the approval without signing the budget; so, they should use that very system to obtain approval for the payment of our allowances.
“If it happens that they purchased all those cars on loan, they should go and obtain loan to settle us. We have been agitating for these allowances long before they purchased these cars.”
The ASUP spokesman noted that the union was having other issues with the state government.
According to him, the state government owed the staff of the institution 36 months half salaries.
He added that this situation had condemned the majority of the staff to living from hand to mouth.
Alimi, however, hinted that the strike would likely end before the first week of July, if the state government approved the budget before the end of this month and the ASUP members’ entitlements were
paid.
He urged the students to assist them in appealing to the school management to pay the allowances of the lecturers on time so that academic activities can resume.
The ASUP spokesman also pleaded with the students to avoid any violent protest in the course of the ongoing
strike.
