₦airaland Forum

ADDRESS ISSUES; STOP BULLYING US TO RESUME WORK! PRESS RELEASE by the Council of Academic Staff Unions of Osun State-Owned Tertiary Institutions (CASUOSTI) Comprising the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Iree & Esa-Oke and the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU), Ilesa & Ila-Orangun 20th September, 2015 The ongoing strike action by the entire academic staff Unions in Osun State-owned Polytechnics and Colleges of Education is a duly declared “dispute of right”. The strike action became our last resort after all efforts to make the State Government to honour existing collective agreements and resolve festering issues through meaningful dialogue failed. We exercised uncommon restraint from declaring total strike action by first embarking on a 2-day weekly warning strike that lasted for 5 months throughout which period Government demonstrated the most appalling level of insensitivity towards our pleas. It is unfortunate that even now that the total strike action has entered fourth month, instead of addressing issues sincerely and with due respect to the rule of Law, Government has only been playing hide and seek and making clandestine moves to misrepresent, blackmail, intimidate, coerce and bully us to resume work. We sadly recall that this undemocratic and malicious approach to industrial conflict resolution has been the major cause of repeated strike actions on same issues in the last five years; because Government has always been more committed to ending strikes than addressing issues leading to them. We use this medium to reiterate that we remain unshakable in our demand for adequate resolution of the festering issues plaguing our sector. For the avoidance of doubt, the issues on ground include: 1. Mismanagement of Contributory Pension Scheme through illegal withholding of contributions and non-actualization of bond and life assurance, leading to irredeemable loss to workers. 2. Non-payment of salaries for the past 8 months and leave bonuses for 2 years even after collecting bail-out fund from the Federal Government for that purpose. We dissociate ourselves from the MoU of NLC with Government on this. We are shocked that despite the unacceptable MoU Government only paid us ONE MONTH salary from the bail-out funds so far. 3. Non-implementation of agreement on staffing leaving many Departments with less than three permanent staff despite the fact that the State Government has been significantly relieved of capital expenditure by TETFund in the provision of infrastructures and learning resources. 4. Reversal of the meagre financial effects of 2014 promotions and “migration of lower cadres” in spite of the fact that we are the least paid and most taxed nationwide and have patriotically sacrificed the arrears of these policies which have already taken notional effect and imposed additional responsibilities on the concerned members of staff. 5. Withholding of deductions from salaries in respect of Union dues, Cooperative Society dues and bank loans, paralyzing our credit societies and resulting in rising penal interests on loans. 6. Illegal constitution of Governing Councils by exclusion of representatives of statutory organs like the Congregation and the Academic Board, the Alumni, etc.To our chagrin, the State Government, through the illegal Governing Council is presently threatening our members at Iree with all sorts of unimaginable policy somersault. We implore members of the incomplete Governing Council at Iree to avoid disorderly approach to issues. 7. Cut-throat tax due to implementation of PITA 2011 without full adoption of statutory salary structure (CONPCASS 2009) making us the least paid but highest taxed nationwide. In the overall interest of all stakeholders including the innocent students of these institutions, we advise the State Government to redirect the precious resources being dissipated to intimidate us, misinform the public and blackmail our Unions in the last few weeks towards sincere and amicable dialogue for the resolution of the ongoing industrial crisis. Signed: Lasisi Jimoh CASUOSTI Chairman Olusegun Lana CASUOSTI Secretary Dotun Omisore ASUP Iree Chairman Oladele Ojo COEASU Ilesa Chairman Adesola Akande, JP ASUP Esa-Oke Chairman ‘Segun Onifade COEA[truncated by WhatsApp]