The members of Senior Staff of the Polytechnic Ibadan has declared that the failure to implement the new minimum wage in tertiary institutions in Oyo State is due largely to consultants and governing councils of these institutions and not the Governor.
This newspaper had earlier reported how workers in the state’s tertiary institutions wrote Governor Seyi Makinde demanding an implementation of the new minimum wage.
Speaking on Fresh FM on Monday morning, a representative of the the Polytechic Ibadan chapter of the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Polytechnic, SSANIP, declared that the 3-day warning strike was due to the failure to implement this new wage.
“We believe the council should have turned our request to the visitor. They have been telling us to be patient but we can’t be patient again. It is a job that is so strenous.
“We gave the council 14 days ultimatum after that we gave them 7 days. We keep telling them our members are on our nerves. Anywhere we are they will call us, ” he said .
When asked whether the session of Senior Staff members of Poly Ibadan to embark on strike is exclusively only about the new minimum wage, he disagreed noting that there are other issues.
“There are many issues. There is the issue of scheme of service. The NBTE has come up with a new scheme after they discovered the old one is outdated. They brought it since last year. Virtually all the polytechnic in the south west have adopted it but Poly Ibadan is yet to.
“We felt being cheated. We felt our management and governing council are being unfair to us. Almost all federal and state polythechnic has adopted it except poly Ibadan.
“Sincerely, we do not have any problem with the governor. Before he came on board we do not see our salary as our right, we see it as a privilege.
“The governing council has not been fair. We believe if the governing council has talked with the governor in a language that understands, he would have acceded to our demands.”
When asked whether he understands that there is a limit to the powers of the governing council especially a consultant employed by the government, the SSANU
representative said, “I am not blaming the governing council. If those powers that are supposed to be vested him them are inexistent then they should be able to cry out.”
“We still have some other issues. We have casual staff whose appointment has not been normalised. We have people who have upgrade their certificate yet their appointment has not been upgraded.
“Similarly, the health centre is a source of concern. We want drugs to be made available there,” he added.
