Teachers in Edo Tertiary Schools Begin Strike
Written by Alemma-Ozioruva Aliu, Benin City
Nigerian Guardian
AFTER weeks of deadlocked meetings and consultations between Coalition of Unions of State Owned Tertiary Institutions (COEASU) and the Edo state government over welfare and sundry issues, COEASU Wednesday embarked on an indefinite strike.
In a press briefing yesterday, President of the union, Fred Omonuwa, noted that some of the issues in contention dated back 2010 where meetings held with the erstwhile Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Dr. Osagie Obayuwana, in 2012, Head of Service, Commissioner for Education, Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources were they claimed that only Governor Adams Oshiomhole can amicably resolve the matters in dispute.
He said some of the issues included: “the non-payment of salaries for a period spanning four months in some of these institutions. These lamentable situations is as a result of the obnoxious 65/35 percent monthly salary wage bill sharing formular foisted on the institutions by the Edo State government.
“While the state government has openly claimed to have fulfilled its financial obligations to these institutions, it has failed in its responsibility of finding out why these salaries are not being paid to the staff as at when due.”
The state Commissioner for Higher Education, Washington Osifo, when contacted as at press time on the matter promised to speak on the issues later.
Chairman of the Governing Board of the affected institutions, Rev Peter Obadan was said to be out of the country.
It would be recalled that Washington said few days ago when the teachers went on a warning strike that “Prior to 2012 when the Federal government announced the new salary structure, state owned tertiary institutions were covered. But we needed to domesticate it and that was negotiated by the Federal Government and not states. So it is not like a fiat. You have to make provision for that at the state level and we decided to key in into the Federal structure so that they will benefit when some states even refused.
“Because the Governor Oshiomhole led administration holds education in a high esteem he said we will abide to the Federal Government agreement as regards those workers. But in 2012 they met with government and said the arrears should reflect the new structure but government said no it was not going to pay any arears but we will key into the new structure.
“We started the implementation of the new salary structure only for them recently to start insinuating that they wanted to drag government t to the table asking for 16 months arrears and we said it is retroactive. On Thursday last week, government sat with them to table their request and they were reminded that in 2012 government said they were not going to pay and they did not raise any eyebrow so why are they raising it now.”
 |
| National Union of Teachers in Edo State Nigeria go on strike. |
Nigerian Guardian
AFTER weeks of deadlocked meetings and consultations between Coalition of Unions of State Owned Tertiary Institutions (COEASU) and the Edo state government over welfare and sundry issues, COEASU Wednesday embarked on an indefinite strike.
In a press briefing yesterday, President of the union, Fred Omonuwa, noted that some of the issues in contention dated back 2010 where meetings held with the erstwhile Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Dr. Osagie Obayuwana, in 2012, Head of Service, Commissioner for Education, Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources were they claimed that only Governor Adams Oshiomhole can amicably resolve the matters in dispute.
He said some of the issues included: “the non-payment of salaries for a period spanning four months in some of these institutions. These lamentable situations is as a result of the obnoxious 65/35 percent monthly salary wage bill sharing formular foisted on the institutions by the Edo State government.
“While the state government has openly claimed to have fulfilled its financial obligations to these institutions, it has failed in its responsibility of finding out why these salaries are not being paid to the staff as at when due.”
The state Commissioner for Higher Education, Washington Osifo, when contacted as at press time on the matter promised to speak on the issues later.
Chairman of the Governing Board of the affected institutions, Rev Peter Obadan was said to be out of the country.
It would be recalled that Washington said few days ago when the teachers went on a warning strike that “Prior to 2012 when the Federal government announced the new salary structure, state owned tertiary institutions were covered. But we needed to domesticate it and that was negotiated by the Federal Government and not states. So it is not like a fiat. You have to make provision for that at the state level and we decided to key in into the Federal structure so that they will benefit when some states even refused.
“Because the Governor Oshiomhole led administration holds education in a high esteem he said we will abide to the Federal Government agreement as regards those workers. But in 2012 they met with government and said the arrears should reflect the new structure but government said no it was not going to pay any arears but we will key into the new structure.
“We started the implementation of the new salary structure only for them recently to start insinuating that they wanted to drag government t to the table asking for 16 months arrears and we said it is retroactive. On Thursday last week, government sat with them to table their request and they were reminded that in 2012 government said they were not going to pay and they did not raise any eyebrow so why are they raising it now.”
No comments:
Post a Comment