The Joint Action Congress of the six government-owned tertiary institutions in Oyo State has expressed displeasure with the alleged ban on the activities of the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union and the Non-Academic Staff Union at the Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, Oyo.
The JAC described the ban as unjust and contradicting the constitutional rule guiding the relationship between employers and their employees.
JAC chairman in the state, Afees Adeniyi, in a statement made available to our correspondent, said the congress was sad that the suspension came after the staff unions made the government to increase the monthly allocation to the school from 25 per cent to 75 per cent.
He stressed that such a move was aimed at silencing the unions from demanding better welfare package for their members and for the infrastructural progress of the institution.
Adeniyi said, “The attention of the leadership of JAC has been drawn to the purported suspension of activities of COEASU and NASU at the Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, Oyo based on our collective and legitimate agitation for better conditions of service for workers in the six Oyo State-owned tertiary institutions, especially the demand for regular payment of 100 per cent salary and backlog of arrears of between eight and 26 months.
“We were miffed that instead of being commended for the efforts made, which led to increase in grant from 25 per cent to 57 per cent for the institution, all they (the unions) could get from the management was suspension of their activities.
This flagrantly contravenes the provisions of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as contained in the Trade Union (Amendment) Act 2005, that guarantees workers/unions right to embark on strike and to also stage peaceful picketing especially when there is a fundamental breach of contract of employment and collective agreement.”
Adeniyi said the union would not accept the clampdown on its members and the “proposed fractional monthly salary of 70 per cent that negated January 2018 Governing Councils-Unions agreement.”
