Members of Staff of the Lagos State University of Science and Technology (LASUSTECH) are jubilating as the Acting Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Oluremi Olaleye, finally rested the last contentious issue which grounded the institution for five years.
The institution, as a polytechnic, had stopped implementation of the ‘2013 Scheme of Service’ for what the staff call a ‘controversial and obnoxious hybrid 2009/2013 Scheme’ which downgraded majority of them, leading to loss of as much as N40,000, monthly, from their salary.
The Protem Secretary of the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) in LASUSTECH, Salami Olugbenga, hailed the Olaleye-led administration for its commitment to staff welfare.
This commitment, he said, was again brought to the fore with the implementation of the earlier suspended 2013 Scheme of Service which plunged the institution into an avoidable crisis during the last administration.
The Acting VC was reported to have appealed to the Governing Council, chaired by Prof. Rasheed Ojikutu, in October 2021, to allow the institution revert to the 2013 Scheme of Service having received appeals from staff unions of the defunct Polytechnic.
Olaleye noted that re-implementing the 2013 Scheme of Service ‘will assuage union members, motivate the staff and enhance their productivity’.” He further reasoned that doing this, in addition to the settled backlog of three-year promotions leading to promotion of about 413 staff of the institution and clearance of salary arrears, will fully reconcile the unions and the school management.
Olugbenga, who thanked the governor, said: “We cannot but appreciate the support, till date, by Governor Babajide Sanwo-olu who has invested massively in education in the last three years and appointed a visionary VC that takes the welfare of the entire Polytechnic Community as a priority.”
He appealed to the governor to ensure that ‘all arrears accrued since 2019 as a result of the wrong application of the scheme is paid to our members’.
Salami pledged the support of his union for a smooth conversion of the polytechnic to university, while hoping that ‘the administration which the entire LASUSTECH community is currently enjoying is given the opportunity to consolidate and strengthen more the workers/management relationship for the growth of the university’.”
Another member of the union, who pleaded for anonymity, said: “the Vice-Chancellor brought joy to everyone the moment we received our salaries and discovered that what we lost five years ago had been restored. It was a pretty surprise. No one expected it so soon, though there had been hints the VC was talking to the Council on the need to revert to the old order.”