Academic activities may be paralysed again at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has threatened to frustrate academic activities if Osun State Governor Gboyega Oyetola refuses to pay their outstanding two months’ salaries by the end of September, WITHIN NIGERIA reports.
This development was made known after the union’s Congress held on Wednesday at the institution’s campus, Ogbomoso, ASUU, it was gathered had resolved to put the public on notice that it should not be blamed if academic activities become disrupted again.
The Oyo and Osun States administration under the leadership of Engineer Seyi Makinde and Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola inherited unpaid salary arrears of eight months being owed LAUTECH academic staff.
The union claimed that Osun State Government scheduled to pay July to December 2019 subvention only fulfilled the payment in July schedule and refused to pay for August and September making payment of salaries impossible.
In a release titled “LAUTECH: Trouble Looming Again” signed by the ASUU LAUTECH Chairman and Secretary Drs Biodun Olaniran and Toyin Abegunrin, the Union accused Osun State Governor of failing to release subventions since August to pay salaries of workers and making life unbearable for them.
According to the Union, “all entreaties to ensure that Osun State government pays outstanding salaries have not yielded any results.”
The Union disclosed that members are owed six years unpaid Earned Academic Allowances, unpaid cooperative deductions and unpaid promotions arrears.
According to the statement: “The problem of poor funding that brought LAUTECH to its knees in 2016/2017 is far from being over. The University, since it came out of that crisis, has been managing to survive with the new administrations in Oyo and Osun states struggling to release the substantial part of monthly subventions for the payment of salaries.
“This brought some relief as the management struggles to attend to the backlog of arrears through internally generated revenue. As a consequence, the University’s calendar started witnessing some stability. However, the whole story started changing when, in August 2019, the government refused to send the subvention for the payment of our salaries.
All entreaties to the government to pay our salaries have not yielded any result. As we speak, the University is already in arrears of two months, that is, August and September 2019 with no hope in sight as to when the salaries will be paid. This is in addition to the existing eight months salaries previously owed to our members!
The public must also be aware of other forms of indebtedness our members. These include years of promotion arrears, Earned Academic Allowances claims for 2013-2018, Cooperatives’ deductions, etc. These are in addition to other statutory obligations to the University which have been left unattended to by the governments.
“At a special congress held today, 25th September 2019, the situation was reviewed with members expressing hardship in transporting themselves to work, among other myriad hardships occasioned by the non-payment of salary.
It was therefore resolved to put the government, the public and our students on notice that the Union should not be blamed if the on-going examinations and other academic activities are affected when by end of the month, that is, 30th September 2019, the congress meets again to review the situation.”