LASPOTECH Staff Unions Deplore Management’s Selective Salaries Payment, Grounded Academic, Administrative Activities

Kunle ADELABU & Jare OLUKOTUN

-Call for Rector’s, Management team’s, Governing Council’s sack

-Students’ leaders call for peace, seek audience with unions

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The three staff unions in the Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH),  Ikorodu, have explained that the renewed strike that paralysed academic and administrative activities in the Ikorodu main campus of the institution was caused by the decision of the management of the institution to pay the salaries of the academic staff members and withheld  that of the non-academic staff members.

The latest protest was in continuation of the long standing agitations by the members of the National Association of Staff Union (NASU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, Lagos State Polytechnic chapters, over the implementation of CONTISS 15 Migration Scheme and the recent de-migration which is the reversal of the implementation of the latter.

The strike action, which commenced on Wednesday, March 27, 2019, has led to the complete closure of the three main gates in the institution while academic and administrative activities as well as banking services and other regular economic activities have been shut down indefinitely.

After shutting and blocking the first and second gates with the unions’ buses, the striking workers moved to the third gate and stationed there to prevent vehicles, including military truck, from coming into the institution.

Many students, including the heads of the three arms of the Students’ Union Government of the institution, were seen outside the school gate trying to calm down some of their mates who were getting agitated and spurring for action against the unions’ members.

The students’ grouse was that the strike action is affecting the examination practicals of some of them which are still ongoing.

There were also claims that some of the students that were processing their papers for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) were also affected by the strike action.

Many of the students were seen climbing the institution’s fence to gain access into the school.

Residents within the institution’s environment were also seen at the gate complaining about their inability to carry out banking transactions in the three banks situated within the institution’s premises.

Comrade Biodun Awoyemi, the Chairman, Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Polytechnics (SSANIP) , Lagos State Polytechnic Chapter, while explaining the cause of the renewed strike action, stated that it was due to  the institution’s management’s selective  salary payment.

“The Rector did the unforgivable. The Rector paid his amputated salaries which we are all aware shouldn’t be what he should pay us for January and of course, we worked for it and the reason he paid for February was essentially because the students were to start examinations and since the academic staff are not fully partaking in this agitations, he has to pay them so as to get their supports for the conduct of the examinations.

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“We envisaged that he wouldn’t want to pay for March. It was his refusal to pay the salaries of the non-teaching staff members that aggravated the strike and also led to the closure of the main gates of the institution”, Comrade Awoyemi explained.

He stated that the renewed agitations have been on since January when the Rector allegedly stopped the implementation of the CONTISS 15 salary scheme which he said the staff members have been enjoying.

“If you are saying that this agitation just started yesterday (March 27), you might not be getting it right. We have been on these renewed agitations since January 21st 2019, when we got the wind that the management was about to forcefully implement de-migration which is the reversal of the migration we had initially attained during the 2016 agitations, so, that is why you see us embarking on this protest . Probably, this is the 9th or 10th week that we have been on this.

“Prior to yesterday (Wednesday) action, all we have been doing was just to gather at the podium to pray and do peaceful protest.

“We have also gone to the Alausa on few occasions but the moment we receive the Head of Service invitation for his intervention, we just mellowed “.

The SSANIP Chairman also claimed that the institution owes them over 100 months salary arrears.

“By now, the salary arrears should be running into over 100 months. When we were talking about 87 months was in 2016. Simply put, the migration scheme should have been effective since 2009 but we didn’t get it until 2016. It was the salary arrears between the period of 2009 and 2016 that accrued into 87 months, but we are now in 2019″.

When informed that the management was waiting for the report of the committee setup by the office of the Head of Service who intervened in the matter, to determine its next cause of action on the matter, the union leader dismissed the position as unreal.

“Why has the management aggravated the situation then if truly it is waiting for the committee’s report?” he queried.

“It is not their waiting for the report that aggravated this. Ordinarily, we equally expected that the management should wait for the report and then act on its recommendations. But with the incident of Wednesday, there is need to tell the management that they cannot take us for granted. What happened on Wednesday and Thursday (March 27 and 28) was not because of the report because we were with the HOS on Tuesday (March 26) and we had no inkling of the report, so, we wouldn’t have been reacting on that.

“These renewed agitations came on Wednesday when the Rector started paying the academic staff members and neglecting others”, he clarified.

Comrade Awoyemi then called for the sack of the Sogunro led management and the Governing Council of the institution for peace to reign.

“What we are urging the government to do, irrespective of the fact that the matter is currently in court, is to remove Sogunro-led management and the Governing Council for bad governance of the Polytechnic.

“We have never experienced this kind of governance before. Let’s the Migration salary scheme return and resolve other agitations, Sogunro led administration cannot ensure peace in the Polytechnic. I think the best thing is to sack him”.

Comrade Semiu Fasasi, the Chairman, National Association of Staff Union (NASU), LASPOTECH chapter, who was away at a meeting when our reporter visited the school, also made some clarifications on the matter to THE IMPACT during a chat.

“It’s unfortunate that we have a management that is only interested in punishing the staff members. This management is the worst ever in the history of LASPOTECH in terms of welfare of the staff members.

“The management chose to pay the salaries of the academic staff members and withheld that of the non-academic staff members. This was what further aggravated their anger despite the fact that some of the non-academic staff members were paid negative net pay which is as low as #1,500 .

In his own reaction, the Vice Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), LASPOTECH Chapter, Comrade Abdulsallam Oluwagbemiga, accused the Rector of employing divide and rule tactics to cause problems among the members of the unions.

He alleged that the Rector, who is also a member of the Union, used his influence to destroy ASUP and later proscribed it while also debunking the allegation that the academic union members are not fully in support of the struggle.

 “That we were paid on Wednesday and the non-academic staff members were not paid did not surprise me at all. That has been the behavior of the Rector. He likes grandstanding and believes that any dissent opinion should be killed.

“He tried that with ASUP too in 2017. He stopped our salaries but we stood our ground, fought and resisted him within 24 hours.

“He’s doing the same thing now because he believes that he can arm twists the non- academic staff members and clamp down o their protest”.

He also accused the Rector of running the institution as a personal property.

“But the Polytechnic Council has risen to the occasion since that campus has been grounded. It is now that we are realizing that he does not have the authority of the council nor that of those in Alausa to do that.

“That is the level the Rector could go in his maladministration. He will just take an action feeling that he is on top of the world, while also running the institution as a personal property”.

Meanwhile, the leaders of the three arms of the Lagos State Polytechnic’s Students’ Union Government (SUG) have called for peaceful resolution of the crisis.

The students’ union leader also asked the workers’ unions to grant them audience as they mount efforts to mediate in the crisis.

Comrade Akindele David, the Students’ Union President of the Lagos State Polytechnic, 2018 /19 academic session, speaking with THE IMPACT on the protracted crisis, stated that:

“From the day one of the crisis, we, as students’ leaders, have been trying to be neutral and also mediate in the matter. Some months back, I met with the Rector and he explained everything to me. He explained how the management members were held hostage which forced the implementation of the union’s demands due to threat to lives and according to him, the state government, in January this year, ordered him to revert the payment to the normal salary scheme as against what the school had been paying and this, according to the Rector, did not go down well with the unions.

“The following week, I tried to meet with the NASU Chairman but the chairman told me categorically that he has no business with the students and that I should go back to the Rector and asks him to give them what they are demanding for. All my efforts to tell him that we are also stakeholders proved abortive”.

He also claimed that there have been other efforts by the students to liaise with the unions which were unsuccessful.

The Union President, who denied the allegation that the institution’s management has bought them over, appealed to students to go about their activities calmly.

“I have always appealed to them (students) to be calm and I still addressed them this morning. We will still continue to be diplomatic because this has been working for us and it has also enabled us to do our examinations. We have also resolved to send letters to some people outside the institution. We believe that in due course, this issue will be resolved.

 Rt. Hon. Balogun Babatunde, the Speaker of the Lagos State Polytechnic Students’ Representatives Council of Students’ Union Government, in his own reaction, said:

“There has been a pending issue between the National Association of Staff Union (NASU) and the school management concerning de-migration which led to some deduction from staff salaries.

“Since this matter has started, we, as students’ union body, have tried to mediate between the two parties. The management has granted us audience severally telling us their positions on the issue but NASU has been turning down our requests to hear their own side.

“The union members have been embarking on peaceful protest over two months now with academic activities going smoothly while the full time students also started and completed their examinations peacefully, until yesterday (Wednesday, March 27) when members of the non-academic staff union locked the school gates when there were students inside the school while others were struggling to gain entrance.

“Many had to jump through the fence to gain access and in the process, many students were injured. We later got the DPO, Shagamu Police Station, to intervene into the matter before it could be resolved. Unfortunately, today (Thursday) again, the union did the same thing. We did everything to meet with the NASU Chairman and his executive council but they still turned us down. This is the situation we found ourselves”.

In his own reaction, Hon. Justice Teslim Abiodun Taofeek, the Chief Judge of the Students’ Union Government, Lagos State Polytechnic, called on the warring parties and the students to act within the stipulation of the law in their agitations.

“I have ensured that the actions of the unions are in conformity with the rules and regulations of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the law of Lagos State, rules of the school and constitution of the union. What I have been doing so far is to ensure that the Students’ Union uses the constitutional means in resolving the issue. Through this, we have been able to speak with the management and also tried to engage NASU but all to no avail.  Members of NASU have rather been calling us names. As Chief Judge, I have been ensuring that we don’t take laws into our hands and also ensured that we all remain calm in the face of the crisis.

“My appeal to the management team of the Polytechnic is that they should please ensure that whatever they are doing is within the purview of the law. To NASU members, irrespective of their right to peaceful protest, they must ensure that they are not doing it against the law. I know that there are rules of engagements in Labour laws, they should conform with these rules.

“We need both parties to act in accordance with the law. We expect NASU members to view the matter from the angle of parents; can they shut down an institution that is populated with their children? Again, we will love NASU to engage the SUG in resolving this matter because we have been hearing all sorts of allegations on the matter but we don’t want to depend on hearsay”, he appealed.

When contacted, the Polytechnic Public Relations Officer stated that the management members are waiting for the report of a committee setup to look into the crisis to determine the next cause of action