ASUP Vows to Continue Strike Until FG Meets Demands
Members of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) have vowed to continue their current nationwide strike action until government implements an agreement it signed with them.
President of ASUP Comrade Chibuzo Asomugha stated this at the Labour House in Abuja at a press conference where he pleaded with Nigerians and the Federal Government to save the polytechnic system from total collapse.
The union had ended a one-week warning strike on Sunday, 29th April, 2013 and immediately commenced an indefinite strike Monday, 29th, April 2013. It had earlier issued a 21-day ultimatum on 25th March, 2013 which expired on 22nd April, 2013.
The issues in contention include “the migration of the lower cadres on the CONTISS 15 salary scale, the release of the White Paper on the Visitations to Federal Polytechnics and the need for the commencement of the Needs Assessment of Nigerian Polytechnics.”
Also in contention is the “worrisome state of State owned Polytechnics in the country, continued appointment of unqualified persons as rectors and provosts of polytechnics, monotechnics and colleges of technologies by some state governments as well as their refusal to implement the approved salary packages (CONPCASS) for their polytechnics, monotechnics and colleges of technologies and the 65 year retirement age.”
Others are “the insistence of the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation to include Federal Polytechnics in the IPPIS module as against the union’s protestations while other arms of the tertiary education subsector are allowed to maintain the status quo and the continued recognition of the National Board for Technical Education as the regulatory body of Nigerian polytechnics as against the union’s repeated call for the establishment of a National Polytechnics Commission (NPC).”
The union is also demanding the acceleration of the “pace of the review of the Federal Polytechnics Act at the National Assembly,” just as it condemns the “reluctance of the Office of the Head of Service to approve the Revised Scheme of Service for Polytechnics and the non commencement of the re-negotiation of the FGN/ASUP agreement as contained in the signed agreement.”
Via: AllAfrica
