SSANIP Members Embark On Indefinite Strike – See Why
MembersĀ of Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Polytechnic, SSANIP, across the country have embarked on an indefinite strike pending the Federal Government honouring the agreement it entered with the union in 2009.
The union said it embarked on the strike following its rejection of the report of a technical committee set up by the Federal Government on the implementation of the Consolidated Tertiary Institutions Salary Scale (CONTISS 15) which the union alleged was approved by the Federal Government and was been implemented in some institutions before it was stopped.
At a media briefing jointly addressed by Chairman, Yaba College of Technology (YCT) chapter of SSANIP, Comrade Olorunmbe Omopariola and the immediate past National President of the Union, Alhaji Ganiyu Akinleye, the Union said it was embarking on the industrial action it suspended after the Federal Government failed to keep its own side of the agreement they jointly signed in 2013.
Omopariola said the major issue of contention was the implementation of the CONTISS 15, a policy that has to do with career movement of staff and payment of appropriated allowances which he claimed to be in effect in 2009 but the federal government has reneged since. He alleged that shortly after the suspension of its industrial action in 2013, the government directed full implementation of the payment across cadres, as part of the terms agreed upon before the suspension of the strike.
He however, noted that shortly after the beginning of the implementation, a directive came to the Rectors of Federal Polytechnics for the suspension of the implementation of the payment, this he said was tested by the union forcing the Federal Government to later withdraw the directive and request for data on the workforce of each polytechnic to know how the implementation would be done.
In the process the Federal government, according to Omopariola, set up two committees, technical and verification committees. The Verification committee was to verify the claims of each polytechnic.
