The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) of the Kogi State University, Anyigba, on Wednesday vowed to continue with its strike action until the state government meet its demand.
The lecturers said about 200 of their
members were screened out of service during the recently concluded staff
verification exercise.
The chairman, ASUU-KSU, Dr Daniel
Aina, while addressing newsmen in Lokoja, the state capital, said the
ongoing strike could only be suspended when all issues relating to
arrears of salaries, 2015 employment, contract and sabbatical staff were
resolved.
The union also said government must
resume the monthly installmental payment of the 2009-2014 arrears of the
Earned Academic Allowances (EAA).
“The Kogi State University management must pay up the outstanding balance of the 2014/2015 arrears of the EAA,” said Aina.
The union, which commended the
government for reconstituting the governing council of the university,
however said the more serious issue of payment of arrears of salaries to
all categories of its members had not been addressed.
The chairman said the union had at
the inaugural meeting of the governing council charged it to expedite
action on the resolution of uncleared staff and payment of arrears of
salaries.
He said, “This was to create a
pathway for the amicable resolution of all outstanding issues before the
24th of April 2017. ASUU’s suggestion would seem to have been
jettisoned. This is because while staff of other tertiary institutions
in Kogi state who have been on strike, have received their February and
March 2017 salaries, those of KSU, Anyigba are yet to be paid”.
The lecturers expressed concerns
over the consistently deteriorating working conditions of the academic
staff of the university that had led to mass exodus of staff.
It also noted a sharp reduction in
the funding of the institution by government, regretting that
infrastructural and staff development in the school had been left in the
hands of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) and the NEEDS
assessment.
The union however condemned the
disruption of the peaceful protest embarked upon by students of the
university, their arrests, rough handling and detention by security
agents while trying to draw government’s attention to their plight.
Credit: Tribune
No comments:
Post a Comment