Lecturers Down Tools In Ondo Varsity Over Unpaid Entitlements

By Ayodele Oni

Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) of the Olusegun Agagu University of Science and Technology, Okitipupa, in Ondo state, (OAUSTECH) has vowed to call its members out from Monday for an  indefinite strike.

The University’s ASUU Chair, Dr Dipo Akomolafe announced this in a communique issued at the end of the Union’s meeting last week, that the Union is proceeding on the strike following inability of the management to pay members their entitlements.

The communique listed the Union’s reasons as “Failure to pay them all outstanding salaries to date; failure to pay all outstanding deductions to date; failure to pay N15m out of the previous earned allowance and failure of the University to spell out the cost implication of the recently submitted Earned Academic Allowance (EAA).”

In a swift reaction to the strike notice, the Vice Chancellor of OAUSTECH Prof. Sunday Ogunduyile said that it was unfortunate that the lecturers were  insensitive to the plight of the students that were just settling down after a prolonged strike by the ASUU national body.

Prof Ogunduyile pointed out that the action of the lecturers to go on strike when the students, who have been on an academic session for over 20 months would start examination on Monday, August 2 is totally unacceptable.

According to him, the lecturers, that were idle during the Covid 19 pandemic, which led to a forced closure of schools, were paid even when they were not working.

“The University administration and the Governing Council met with the Unions on many occasions to deliberate on how to resolve all issues raised.

“However, the paucity of fund and inadequate subventions as well as the effects of Covid 19 prevented implementation of some of the agreements.

“The long ASUU strike led to prolong extension of the 2019/2020 academic session which started since January, 2020. This had its ripple effects on the running of the University as the cost of running the academic session of which should have lasted for about nine months now has to cover twenty months,” Ogunduyile said.

The VC added that the management has ensured that the ASUU leadership is always carried along in major decisions, insisting that the strike action was uncalled for.

“It was noted that the earlier approval by the National Executive Committee of ASUU that the Union can embark on indefinite strike if the above demands were not met further encouraged the Local Branch of the Union to go on strike.”