A seven-day ultimatum has been sent out by labour unions in Institutions owned by Oyo State, to the state government to lay off the consultant appointed to authorize all spendings of the institutions.
Gathering under the umbrella of the Joint Action Committee of Trade Unions (JAC), the unions characterized the selection of a consultant to approve all spending by tertiary institutions as an anomaly that contradicts the edict establishing the institutions. JAC said the appointment strangles their financial decisions, a development it said was harmful to the smooth running of the institutions.
The chief executives of these institutions usually seek approval of the consultant on their expenses. They do not spend a dime without the company’s approval despite the existence of a board of management and management staff, in their respective institutions.
JAC includes ASUP, COEASU, SSANIP AND SSUCOEN at Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, Oyo; Oke-Ogun Polytechnic, Saki; Adeseun Ogundoyin Polytechnic, Eruwa; College of Education, Lanlate and Oyo State College of Agriculture and Technology, Igbo-Ora. They commanded Seyi Makinde to terminate the appointment or witness industrial action.
They reached this verdict, during their last meeting held at the Oke-Ogun Polytechnic, Saki, on Thursday.
In a six-point communique signed by the JAC Chairman, Comrade Olusegun Oyewumi, JAC reiterated that operations of Platinum Ltd. are no longer tolerable.
Further insisting that the state government must be fully responsible for salaries and emoluments of the labour force in the institutions.
“In as much as the government is wholly responsible for the implementation of the new minimum wage structure in every other sector such as health, justice and ministries, the same government should be responsible 100 per cent for the wages of workers in tertiary institutions. JAC rejected any form of salary augmentation in these institutions as this could lead us back to the dark era of the past administration in which salary augmentation has brought untold hardship to the staffers of all tertiary institutions in the state,” It said.
JAC also requested for the payment of 11 months accrued arrears of minimum wage, emphasising: “In line with the content of the signed agreement on minimum wage that the accrued January – November 2020 minimum wage arrears would be paid in not more than three instalments, JAC hereby demands that the government should state in clear terms as it did for core civil service, the specific months to defray the arrears. We urge the government to make known to us, her plans for defraying the arrears within the next seven days.”
It also called for a tax waiver by the government to the staff of the institution up to 40 per cent since taxation is negotiable.
It also wants the state government to resuscitate the dying infrastructural state of these institutions.
Finally, it praised the state government for implementing the approved new minimum wage that follows the Government/JAC agreement of January 13, 2021.
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