AOCOED lecturers begin indefinite strike over outstanding demands

Gabriel Dike

The union explained that all academic activities will be suspended until their demands are met by the Lagos State Government and management of AOCOED.

The COEASU AOCOED chairman, Mr. Ige Ajayi said two months ago, the union suspended the industrial action over some germane issues affecting it’s members.

In a swift reaction, the Registrar of AOCOED, Mr. S. A. Muhideen said the management is not aware of the strike and that outstanding salary arrears have been cleared.

Addressing newsmen on the strike, Mr. Ige said the union is compelled to declare an industrial dispute by resuming the suspended strike from December 3.

Ige confirmed that the strike was authorised by the congress and has the blessings of the national and zonal body.

He explained that the college management and the Lagos State Government will be informed of their decision to resume the suspended strike.

The chairman said the union waited for a long time to receive and appraise the responses from the college management and the government without success, thus the congress at its last meeting approved the strike.

His words: “It has become obvious that our union has been taken for granted by all standards. The union is left with no other option than to prove to its members the genuineness of its resolve to defend the union demands.”

He listed the outstanding demands to include unpaid 53.37 % allowance and arrears, N350 million bailout, epileptic power supply in the college, nonresuscitation of IGR programmes, unpaid outstanding honoraria, management inability to establish college bookshop and inexplicable promotion criteria for academic staff.

“We have come to realize that the long period of time given yielded no result and nothing positive has been achieved,” he stressed.

Ige further noted that the union is going on a long journey and can only stop when the state government and management address outstanding demands.

According to him, the outstanding demands started in 2010 and some tertiary institutions in Lagos State are paying their lecturers. He wondered why COEASU members in AOCOED are treated are differently.

On the allowance, he said COEASU members for long have not been paid harzard and transportation allowance.

Ige further disclosed that with the strike, no academic activities will take place in AOCOED until their demands are met.

But the Registrar, Mr. Muhideen said the three staff unions did not mention the harzard and transportation allowance until in 2017 when the state budget was approved.

Muhideen confirmed that the two allowances have been factored into the 2019 budget but that government has not release funds for the subvention and bail out.

He said a firm has been approved to run a bookshop in the college, management decided to readjust the distribution of electricity on campus due to epileptic power supply and that the governing council took the decision on the IGR programmes because the affiliation with Ekiti State University was not favourable to AOCOED