Gabriel Dike
WORRIED by the irregularities in the implementation of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Polytechnics (SSANIP) has given the Federal Government November ending to address the lingering issues.
SSANIP gave the November ending ultimatum to the Federal Government at its quarterly Zonal Executive Council meeting of Zone F (South West) held at Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH).
The meeting, which attracted the National President of SSANIP, Mr Philip Ogunsipe, acknowledged that government has failed to address issues raised as a result of wrong implementation of IPPIS and that members are agitated by the short-comings.
The communiqué issued at the meeting and signed by the Zonal Secretary, Mr Sunday Komolafe, SSANIP expressed displeasure at the inability of the government agencies to address identified persistent short-comings of the new payment platform introduced by the Federal Government.
The union regretted the lackluster attitude of government agencies towards addressing the challenges of IPPIS.
SSANIP identified the short-comings to include shortfalls in salaries of members, non-implementation of the 2019 promotion exercise till date, haphazard remittance of third party deductions and discrepancies/mix-up in many cases, non-remittance of the 2020 July deductions till date, non-remittance of new minimum wage arrears and humongous tax regime.
“On the premise of these persistent short-comings and the seemingly inability of IPPIS to address them, the council frowned and demanded that the IPPIS should resolve these lingering issues by the end of November 2020 in the interest of the industrial harmony,” the body said.
The union decried the non-implementation of new minimum wage in state polytechnics and called on state governments to respect the tripartite agreement on the new wage, noting that “many states are yet to implement the same to the detriment of our members in affected states”.
Against the background of SSANIP members’ agitation, the council called on the affected state governments to quickly implement the new minimum wage in the spirit of industrial harmony.
SSANIP expressed concern over delay in payment of salaries in some state polytechnics, including backlogs in previous years just as it appealed to state government to fund their polytechnics adequately.
The association frowned at the continued foot-dragging of government at state and federal levels on their absorption of sacked staff schools personnel into the mainstream despite the judgment of the national industrial count.
The union also noted the deliberate neglect of the polytechnic sub-sector in the payment of the approved COVID-19 hazard allowance for health workers based on 40 per cent of the affected staff basic salary.
Other lingering issues discussed at the meeting were non-release of union check-off dues, usurpation of non-teaching post by teaching staff and demand to upgrade the College of Health Science and Technology to a full-fledged conventional polytechnic.