Strong indications have emerged that workers of
the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun
State, may soon close down the institution over
unpaid allowance.


The workers, under the aegis of Non Academic
Staff Union, OAU chapter, had started their protest
with a warning strike penultimate Wednesday,
alleging that they had not been paid their hazard
allowances for 64 months.


When our correspondent visited the university’s
campus on Friday, hundreds of students, members
of staff and visitors were seen trekking from the
school gate to lecture theatres.
The aggrieved workers had shut the school gate
and other facilities, including the university senate
building and library.


The Chairman of the NASU, OAU Chapter, Comrade
Wole Odewunmi, on Saturday insisted that if the
protest did not yield the desired result, the workers
would embark on a strike.
He said, “After this, if the management refuses to
respond to our demand, we will notify the
management of our strike action. This is just a
notification ahead of our strike action.
“We met with the pro-chancellor but his response
does not suite us. After I took the report of the
meeting to our members, they decided that we
should make our agitation known to the
management and the public.”


Odewunmi also accused the management of giving
but refused pay them.
He said, “We are peace loving union among all the
unions on campus. But this time around, the
authorities want to term our gentility as stupidity
and that was the reason we decided that we must
protest. This is to enable the management know
what is burning in our heart.


“For the past 64 months, we are owed hazard
allowance and we have had several meetings that
yielded no results. The two parties — government
and management- keep pushing blames on one
another.
“The school management are saying that they have
not received any money but those at top positions
are already enjoying some of those benefits but
tagged it as responsibility allowance. They did not
pay hazard allowance. How can they implement
certain areas and leave the rest of the workers?”
Also, the President of the Students’ Union, Mr.
Omotayo Akande, during a symposium, had told
students of the institution that the school might be
closed on Monday.


He explained that the closure might be necessary
due to plans by NASU to shut power and water
supply to the university on Sunday (today).
The students had earlier embarked boycotted
lectures for one week in solidarity with the
aggrieved NASU workers.

www.punching.com/news/strike-looms-in-oau-over-64-month-unpaid-allowances/

Ok

hmmmm