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Tag: Strike

  • King’s College teachers on strike over salary

    King’s College teachers on strike over salary

    Academic activities have been paralysed at King’s College (KC), Lagos following an indefinite strike by workers for alleged non-payment of salary.

    A notice pasted on the school gate reads: “Strike ongoing. Academic activities grounded in King’s College; five months salaries unpaid. Staff are dying.”

    A teacher, Mr Muhammed Isa, who spoke with our correspondent yesterday, said pupils, should have resumed on September 17 and 18 but would not do so until the issue is resolved by the federal government.

    He said the matter is the same at the Federal Government College, Idoani in Ondo State.

    Isa said: “The Federal Government has not paid our salaries for five months now. We did not even allow the pupils to resume. Obviously, we have some problems that have to be resolved. Our own children cannot go to school because our salaries have not been paid. Also, we do not have the empowerment to come to work. It has to do with money. You have to pay your transport from wherever you are to come to school, we cannot trek. There are some of our staff who are sick and cannot pay hospital bills. One of the staff came on Wednesday, in need of money to pay her hospital bills and she could not get it. She died on Friday. So this has informed us not to resume and we did not take the action without the approval of our mother union, the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN).”

    Mrs Binta Duguri, who teaches Government and Civic Education said: “The non-payment of salary is really affecting us because our own children are at home, because there is no money to pay their school fees. The ones that have reached university cannot even resume. It is not fair that we should come and be teaching other children for free.”

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • King’s College teachers on strike over salary

    Academic activities have been paralysed at King’s College (KC), Lagos following an indefinite strike by workers for alleged non-payment of salary.

    A notice pasted on the school gate reads: “Strike ongoing. Academic activities grounded in King’s College; five months salaries unpaid. Staff are dying.”

    A teacher, Mr Muhammed Isa, who spoke with our correspondent yesterday, said pupils, should have resumed on September 17 and 18 but would not do so until the issue is resolved by the federal government.

    He said the matter is the same at the Federal Government College, Idoani in Ondo State.

    Isa said: “The Federal Government has not paid our salaries for five months now. We did not even allow the pupils to resume. Obviously, we have some problems that have to be resolved. Our own children cannot go to school because our salaries have not been paid. Also, we do not have the empowerment to come to work. It has to do with money. You have to pay your transport from wherever you are to come to school, we cannot trek. There are some of our staff who are sick and cannot pay hospital bills. One of the staff came on Wednesday, in need of money to pay her hospital bills and she could not get it. She died on Friday. So this has informed us not to resume and we did not take the action without the approval of our mother union, the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN).”

    Mrs Binta Duguri, who teaches Government and Civic Education said: “The non-payment of salary is really affecting us because our own children are at home, because there is no money to pay their school fees. The ones that have reached university cannot even resume. It is not fair that we should come and be teaching other children for free.”

  • Sultan to Doctors: Embrace dialogue not strike

    Sultan to Doctors: Embrace dialogue not strike

    The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Abubakar has urged doctors to embrace dialogue and  avoid going on industrial actions if their demands are not quickly met when negotiating with government.

    Abubakar said patients interest should be paramount to doctors whenever they are in negotiations with the government.
    He said this yesterday in Lagos at the 34th convocation of 340 Fellows of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria,Ijanikin,Lagos state.

    The Sultan,honoured with an Honorary fellow  from the college, said the country is not yet free of polio as three new cases have been recorded and all hands must be on deck to finally rid the country of polio.

    He said there are  good doctors in the country that could meet up the health demands of Nigerians instead of medical tourism abroad, but to make it excellent, they need good  leadership.

    The guest speaker and the group medical director of the Catholic Eye hospital group,Dr Benedictus Ajayi asserted that strikes embarked upon by resident doctors have various dire consequences from which most teaching hospitals are yet to recover.

    Ajayi said:”Many patients had died,some incapacitated,equipment damaged from disuse and sadly training programmes have been disrupted due to various industrial actions by doctors”.

    “To abandon one’s patients for any reason is tantamount to lack of compassion,lack of feelings, denigration of the human being, loss of humanity knowing the complications that would arise from non treatment or inadequate treatment and damning the consequences”,he affirms.

    He said lobbying the right persons with quality medical services will go a long way in resolving most of the demands of the striking doctors instead of resolving to industrial actions.

    Ajayi,who is heading five hospitals under the group, also enjoin doctors to check their attitudes as that is what will differentiate a successful doctor from the rest.

    In the same vein,the college president, Prof. Ademola Olaitan said dialogue should be used by doctors as industrial actions have been overused to the detriment of all.

    Olaitan  said  postgraduate medical and dental education in the country is passing through a turbulent period,as despite the low funding,frequent work stoppages in various teaching hospitals does not allow for trainees fulfilment of the  prescribed minimum period of clinical placements and rotations that qualifies them for examinations.

    “High investments on medical education by government will yield high quality of patients care and top among the investments will be government resuscitation and funding of the one-year abroad that expose post Part 1 residents to practices in the developed world”, he added.

    He said though there have been comments and reactions on the issue of relevance or otherwise of clinical teachers possessing the Ph.D to teach or to progress in the University system,the college reiterates that Fellowship is the highest qualification needed in the practice and training of medical doctors and specialists in the health system as obtains globally.

  • ASUU strike’ll end soon, says AAUA VC

    The Vice Chancellor, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, (AAUA) Prof Igbekele Ajibefun, has assured that the on-going industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in the institution will soon end.

    Ajibefun gave the assurance while speaking with reporters in his office at the weekend.

    The VC said, “Our academic calendar has been very smooth until recently when the university began to face some challenges in terms of payment of salaries, which is not unconnected with the economic recession in the country.

    “Very soon, all the issues will be resolved. We are in a progressive talk with the leadership of ASUU. Efforts are in the top gear to ensure that ASUU members go back to class. Very soon, our students will be asked to return to campus.”

    Reacting to speculations that the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) at AAUA has been proscribed, following a protest by some members of the association, which led to the disengagement of its executives in 2012, Ajibefun said the union was never banned in the university.

    “There is no record whatsoever that says SSANU has been banned. The Management is not against its resuscitation. Everybody has the right to freedom of association and such a right has not been taken away from SSANU,” he said.

  • ASUU strike’ll end soon, says AAUA VC

    The Vice Chancellor, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, (AAUA) Prof Igbekele Ajibefun, has assured that the on-going industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in the institution will soon end.

    Ajibefun gave the assurance while speaking with reporters in his office at the weekend.

    The VC said, “Our academic calendar has been very smooth until recently when the university began to face some challenges in terms of payment of salaries, which is not unconnected with the economic recession in the country.

    “Very soon, all the issues will be resolved. We are in a progressive talk with the leadership of ASUU. Efforts are in the top gear to ensure that ASUU members go back to class. Very soon, our students will be asked to return to campus.”

    Reacting to speculations that the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) at AAUA has been proscribed, following a protest by some members of the association, which led to the disengagement of its executives in 2012, Ajibefun said the union was never banned in the university.

    “There is no record whatsoever that says SSANU has been banned. The Management is not against its resuscitation. Everybody has the right to freedom of association and such a right has not been taken away from SSANU,” he said.

  • Fuel crisis imminent as PENGASSAN threatens strike

    Fuel crisis imminent as PENGASSAN threatens strike

    The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) at the weekend threatened to resume its suspended strike if the Federal Government failed to intervene in an agreement it signed with the stakeholders in the industry.

    In a letter to the Minister of Labour and Employment dated August 22, this year, the group’s Acting General Secretary, Comrade Lumumba Ighotemu Okugbawa, stated that since the agreement was signed over a month ago, it had not been executed.

    The union urged the minister to call the defaulting managements to order to avert another strike. It expressed dismay at the disobedience of the directive from the Federal Government on the issue to the managements of the affected firms.

    Copies of the letter were sent to the Director-General, State Security Services (SSS), the Group Managing Director (GMD), Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the General Manager, National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS).

    According to PENGASSAN, the agreement was reached at the end of the conciliation meetings  at the instance of the Minister of Labour and Employment with PENGASSAN, the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and other stakeholders on July 12, 14 and 21 in Abuja.

    “It is over a month now since the last communiqué was reached and we can say in summation that no much progress has been achieved. This, of course, is making our members restive and we are under tremendous pressure to bring about a total resolution on all the contending issues.

    “We are constrained therefore to note with great dismay that most of the companies are foot-dragging and have resorted to time-wasting tactics in order to deliberately frustrate the process. We are, therefore, based on the above, requesting that you use your good office to intervene by calling on the managements of these companies to quickly implement these resolutions as it affects them,” the letter stated.

    PENGASSAN warned that it would on strike if the firms refused to honour the deal.

    The union listed the defaulting firms to include Mobil Producing Nigeria Contract Staff Forum, Fugro Nigeria Limited, Petrostuff Nigeria, Tecon, Frontier Oil Limited, Universal Energy Resources Limited, Pan Ocean, Halliburton Energy Services Nigeria Limited, CISCON, and Baker Hughes.

    PENGASSAN National Public Relations Officer, Comrade Emmanuel Ojugbana, explained that the agreement was signed as a prerequisite to calling off the last national strike by the union, adding that the managements of the firms should respect the  agreements.

    He said: “This is not a product of pronouncement but an agreement reached by all stakeholders including the managements of the companies involved. I don’t see any reason why it is difficult for them to respect this agreement as contained in the communiqué.

    “If the companies know that they cannot obey the constitution of Nigeria, the extant labour laws of our country and other relevant authorities in government, they should just pack and leave the business for those that are ready to do so.”

    Ojugbana called on NAPIMS to ensure that the firms implement the agreement, calling on the Ministers of Petroleum Resources as well as its Labour and Employment counterpart to intervene to avert another strike.

    He urged well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on the  firms to respect the agreement.

  • Ogun varsity lecturers to begin strike over N3.5b subvention arrears

    •Govt: we’re still giving education pride of place 

    The two-week sit-at-home by lecturers at the Olabisi Onabanjo University(OOU), Ago-Iwoye, in protest against unpaid subvention, may transform into a strike if the state failed to address the issue tomorrow.

    Since three weeks, OOU lecturers have been observing the  “sit-at-home” directive following a decision of the Congress of the institution’s Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on August 8.

    The semester examinations at the time, came to an abrupt end, forcing hundreds of students, who had come to school for their papers to return home in disappointment.

    OOU-ASUU Chairman Dr. Deji Agboola told The Nation yesterday that the university’s management, reeling from paucity of funds, would be unable to pay them July and August salaries because the government had not paid OOU subventions in the last 24 months.

    Agboola, an associate professor and head of Department of Morbid Anatomy and Histopatology in the university’s teaching hospital (OOUTH), Sagamu,  said the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), which the university management had been using to pay workers’ salaries, had “dried up”.

    He said the lecturers might be compelled to embark upon a strike this week, if the government failed to implement the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) it signed with them in December 2015.

    The MoU, he added, recommended adequate and regular funding of OOU through payment of subventions, among others.

    He lamented that the government owes the institution  subvention arrears of N3.5 billion as at last July.

    Recalling that they were last paid in June by the management, Agboola said there was also no assurance that his members would be paid July and August  salaries soon.

    However, attempts to reach the Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Mrs. Modupe Mujota, was not successful.

    But in June, the Governor Ibikunle Amosun administration said “it’s giving education a pride of place in the scheme of things in Ogun State.”

    Mrs. Mujota, who spoke during the conference of Pro- Chancellors of State Universities in Nigeria, hosted by Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijagun,  last June, said the government was committed to continually providing infrastructure for its educational institutions to enable them deliver on their mandates.

  • Three unions suspend strike in UI

    Three unions suspend strike in UI

    Three non-teaching staff unions at the University of Ibadan – Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) and the Non-Academic Staff Unions (NASU) – have suspended their two weeks’ strike.

    The unions embarked on a warning strike from Friday 29, July to Friday August 12, in protest against shortfall in salary payment and the ownership of Staff School.

    The suspension of the strike yesterday resurrected administrative activities at the university as students resumed for the second semester of the 2015/2016 session.

    The university’s acting Vice Chancellor, Prof. Idowu Olayinka, while speaking with reporters thanked the intervention of parties, individuals, bodies and groups on the successful negotiations that saw to the end of the strike.

    He assured workers and students he would always explore lawful means to better their welfare.

    He promised that the issue of staff school is being resolved through a committee comprising stakeholders.

    He added that no worker of the school would be sacked.

    Olayinka said: “For purpose of clarity, the two contentious issues at stake by the staff unions are/were the shortfall in payment of salaries and ownership of the Staff School.

    “The Management of the University of Ibadan once again reiterates its understanding of the harsh realities of the sharply increasing costs of living and the mounting financial pressures on members of the university community as well as the challenge of under-payment of salaries which have further compounded the situation.

    “The university management continues to look inwards at ways of resolving the financial challenges arising from the shortfall of the revenue allotted the university, which in itself was due largely to the quantum drop in the price of crude oil on the world market.”

    He acknowledged the personal intervention of the university’s Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council, Dr. Umar Musa Mustapha, who had series of reconciliatory meetings with management and leadership of the three staff union.

    Olayinka said his administration would continue to improve on the modest achievements of staff promotion as and when due

  • Ekiti federal hospital doctors begin strike

    Doctors at the Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido Ekiti (FETHI) will today commence a three-day warning strike.

    This follows the expiration of the 14-day ultimatum issued to management.

    The doctors under the auspices of the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) accused the hospital management of paying half salaries

    Chairman, FETHI Branch of MDCAN, Dr. Timothy Olajide, said the warning strike became the available option.

    Olajide said the decision to commence on a warning strike after which another ultimatum will be issued to redeem the demands or face indefinite strike, was taken at their meeting of August 4.

    The MDCAN boss said part of the resolutions reached was that his members would no longer tolerate the offering of salary due for resident doctors to them, as senior officials of the hospital.

    “The doctors also demanded immediate payment of the shortfall in the salary of members for the month of July, 2016.

    “That we regret  any inconvenience this inevitable action may cause our patients”, he said.

  • UUTH doctors begin strike over unpaid salaries

    Resident doctors at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH) in Akwa Ibom State have begun an indefinite strike over unpaid salaries.

    Addressing reporters in Uyo, the state capital, UUTH’s President of the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) Dr. Christian Adeneye said the doctors were demanding, among other things, the payment of their full salaries from July.

    Adeneye said UUTH was one of the three national hospitals, which refused to implement the rightful entry point and arrears accrued from same to House Officers, as directed by the Federal Ministry of Health.

    The union leader condemned ‘’the unfair denial’’ of terminal salaries to six House Officers in June, compelling them to work without pay, despite the association’s plea on July 18.

    He said: “It is grossly displeasing to the association that relatively arrears of January 2015, which was disbursed by the Federal Government to beneficiaries, are yet to be paid by our institution till date.

    “The association has observed with suspicion the inconsistent remittance of pension contributions of members and counterpart funding by the Federal Government to our pension fund administrators (PFAs).

    “We note with chagrin the marked disparity in taxation of members on IPPIS and GIFMIS platforms, plunging our members on GIFMIS platform into paying taxes twice above those on IPPIS platform. This is further corroded by the inability of our members to access their tax clearance.

    “Congress also frowns at the persistent neglect, lack of maintenance, failure to provide power and water to House Officers’ quarters, which has engendered difficult habitation, thereby hampering the efficiency in service delivery in the hospital.”