Two weeks after the Academic Staff Union of Universities suspended its six-month-old strike over inadequate funding of universities, the Senior Staff Union in Colleges of Education, Nigeria has commenced a seven-day national working strike.
The warning strike, which began on January 6, 2014, was necessitated by alleged failure on the part the Federal Government and some state governments to implement many of the agreements reached with the union by the government in 1999, just like the ASUU’s.
College of Education senior staff embark on seven-day strike.
Oladapo said that the warning strike might be the prelude to a full-blown, indefinite and unprecedented strike “ever to be embarked upon by the Non-Teaching Staff in the College of Education System in Nigeria”.
Flanked by Atinuke Ebun, Oropo Tajudeen (Secretary, PRO), Oladapo disclosed that part of the areas of the 2009 agreement the union alleged the Federal Government and some state governments had not addressed in the last 15 years include: “Non-full implementation of CONTEDISS salary structure, non-implementation of 65 years retirement ge for non-teaching staff in many Colleges of Education (particularly state colleges), non-full implementation of Consolidated Salary Structure for Registrars and Bursars of Colleges of Education, non-implementation of sabbatical leave appointment, non-implementation of the Federal Government decision on Demonstration Primary Schools, aimed at integrating the staff of the schools into the mainstream of the College.
“Non-approval/implementation of migration for officers on CONTEDISS 11 and below, contrary to paragraph 3 of the Federal Ministry of Education’s approval on same, non-release of the Approved New Scheme of Service for Colleges of Education, total rejection of the proposed implementation of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS), non-payment of responsibility allowance to non-teaching staff not entitled to overtime allowance, whereas it had been implemented in the University system.”
Above all, the SSUCOEN said it embarked on the warning strike because of “inadequate funding of Colleges of Education at the Federal and state levels, thereby engendering inability to provide reasonably adequate teaching and municipal facilities, as well as provision for staff welfare, training and development”.
Expatiating on some of the complaints, Oladapo said while the Federal Colleges of Education had implemented the agreement on 65 years retirement age for its staff, “many state colleges have not domesticated it, thereby affecting negatively the mobility of labour.
“While Bursars, Registrars, Provosts who are principal officers in Colleges of Education are earning a little below N400,000 per month, their counterparts in the universities earn between N1.4m and N1.5m per month. This is grossly unfair and unjustifiable, and a stop must be put to it,” he said.
The chairman nevertheless called for understanding of the members of the society, students inclusive, who may be affected by the warning strike for the period it lasts, disclosing that after the expiration, the union would resume only to commence a full-blown, indefinite strike if the demand to revitalise teacher education in Nigeria was not acceded to.
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