The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP) members at Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo (RUGIPO), have issued a threat to boycott the upcoming examination if their 11 months’ salary arrears remain unpaid.
They emphasised their inability to endure hardship while carrying out their duties without compensation.
The chairman of RUPIGO ASUP, Comrade Ade Arikawe, conveyed this concern during a press conference in Owo, stating that the lecturers had only received salary for February and partial payment for March 2023.
Arikawe stated that they have been waiting for seven years for normalcy to return to workers’ salary payment but to no avail.
He added that it was worrisome that management of the institution refused to pay the financial benefits of promotion of staff since 2015 till date.
Arikawe noted that RUGIPO currently suffered huge deficits in infrastructure, equipment and teaching aids, adding that the situation was so appalling to the extent that the polytechnic had to borrow some equipment and machines used in the last accreditation exercise in the institution.
The ASUP chairman said that the polytechnic was currently owing over N6 billion emanating from workers’ salary arrears, promotion benefits and others.
Read Also: KadPoly sacks ASUP chairman over staff quarters dispute
He traced the cause of perpetual salary payment of tworkers i to continual slash of the government subvention to the polytechnic by the Olusegun Mimiko and the Oluwarotimi Akeredolu administrations.
Arikawe stated that the hardship being faced by the union’s members could better be imagined, adding that the situation had led to untimely deaths, avoidable ill health, broken marriages, humiliation and all manner of unimaginable living conditions of lecturers of the institution.
The ASUP chairman said that it was unfortunate that the state government was boasting to have successfully paid all backlog of salaries owed workers with the fate of RUGIPO lecturers being different.
On conversion of the polytechnic to university status by the state government, the ASUP Chairman condemned the panel set by the government for not involving the ASUP in the consideration process.
He demanded that the ASUP’s members who were qualified in various stages should necessarily migrate to the proposed university as being done in some states.
Arikawe applauded the state for reinstating some ASUP members sacked for their unionist activities.
He said: “We have tried as much as possible to be discharging our duties despite working in hunger. We have been doing this to suite and please our governor, who is an indigene of Owo so that his political opponents will not use it against him.
“But we have done enough and we can’t wait any longer nor endure again. For now, without our salary arrears being cleared, we will not participate in any examination process.
“The only language we want to hear is that our salary arrears have been paid. The situation we are in in RUGIPO is bad.”
The spokesman for the institution, Samuel Ojo, said all categories of workers were being owed salaries.
Oko said what was owed workers was not up to 11 months as alleged by ASUP.
He enjoined ASUP to have a synergy with the institution’s management to fathom lasting solution to the crisis.