Activities paralyzed at LASPOTECH as workers begin indefinite strike

By Gabriel Dike

 Industrial action embarked upon by workers of the Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH) has crippled academic and administrative activities at the 39-year-old institution.

The strike by the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Polytechnics (SSANIP) and the Non Academic Staff Union (NASU) followed the expiration of an ultimatum issued the management to implement the migration of lower cadre of staff to the next level in terms of salary upgrade.

While NASU ultimatum to the management expired on Thursday, SSANIP own expired on Friday, prompting an indefinite strike to protest the non implementation of their for the payment of arrears of the Consolidated Tertiary Institution Salary Structure (CONTISS 15) migration to staff at the lower cadre.    

NASU strike on Thursday nearly turned violence as the Rector, Mr. Samuel Sogunro and the chief security officer attempted to break the strike which was resisted by the angry workers and in the process a vehicle over ran some staff injuring a female staff.

On Friday, the situation worsen when SSANIP joined the strike with a protest in front of the institution main gate as its members carried different placards with various inscriptions among which include ‘’Sogunro must go’’, ‘’92 months of waiting: Enough is enough’’ and also called the Rector unprintable names.

As early as 8.00am, the workers of the polytechnic locked the three gates leading to the campus thus the Rector, Mr. Sogunro and other principal officers were locked out of the institution while students were held outside for hours before being allowed in.

For over five hours, members of SSANIP joined by NASU staged a protest in front of the main gate singing and chanting against the polytechnic management for not implementing the 2009 National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) circular on CONTISS 15.

Chairman of SSANIP, Mr. Awoyemi Abiodun told Saturday Sun that the management failed to implement the NBTE circular for polytechnics in Nigeria which other polytechnic workers have began to enjoin.

Abiodun disclosed that the Lagos state government increased LASPOTECH subvention in 2016 by N57million and the financial implication of the workers’ demand for the migration is N20milion.

He said the management promised to implement the NBTE Circular after series of meetings and the Governing Council approved May 2016 but the same management reneged and it gave excuse of huge over head cost as the reason for the non implementation.

In a swift reaction to the on-going strike, the Deputy Registrar (Information), O.S. Kuye told Saturday that the demand of the workers was not captured in the 2016 budget and that the Rector has explained this development to the unions who are insist on payment based on increase in the subvention.

Kuye also revealed that the Rector met with state government officers and promised that payment would be made from 2017 stating ‘’when the arrears was calculated, it amount to N1.7billion. With the recession, it will be difficult for government release such huge money’’.

Said he ‘’The state government increased our subvention from N153million to N210million monthly Every month, our salary bill is about N230million. With the increased subvention, the management will need to augment the money by N30miilion’’.

He appealed to the workers to be patience with the management as the demand would be reflected in the 2017 budget and further disclosed that the Rector held a town hall meeting with all staff and pleaded with them to exercise patience till 2017.   

Saturday Sun gathered that the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) LASPOTECH chapter have also issued the management a 7-day ultimatum on the same issue which would expire next week.