The joint action committee of the Senior Staff Association of the Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU) at the Taraba University, Jalingo, on Monday staged a peaceful protest demanding an improved welfare.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the two unions embarked on strike two weeks ago over issues of poor welfare, non-implementation of promotion arrears, earned allowances, non-implementation of pension and gratuity of their members, among others.
Mr Linus Williams, the leader of the joint action committee and Chairman of SSANU, said promotion arrears of academic staff from 2016 to 2019 have been paid, while the University management continued to give excuses in the payment of non-academic staff earned allowances and promotion arrears.
“We were promoted together with academic staff, but we are being denied our promotion arrears. We have written several correspondences but to no avail.
“The day we were to embark on this indefinite strike, the management issued a statement that they will pay our arrears on December 18, 2021, the day the University is expected to close for the second semester, so who will pay us when the school is on vacation?
“It is a fact that there is nothing like pension and gratuity here in this school and our members are being paid half salaries at times, but we have been patient. We cannot take this any more, enough is enough.
“As it stands, the strike continues until our demands are met. The school management and the government are proud that the university ranked 17 in the country, but that wouldn’t have been possible if not for the sacrifices we made to grow the University,” he said.
Another Congress member, Comrade Gamboro Adi, said the strike would continue until the school management meets their demands.
“Our problem in this university is not the government, but the university management.
“The management is insensitive to our plight and we must resist bad governance because it is our right to get all our wages,” he said.
NAN reports that some of the union members carried placards with the inscriptions; “implement staff pension in TSU, “pension is our rights, stop misinforming the government, stop running the University like your private business,” pay us our promotion arrears’, among others.
When contacted the Information and Protocol Officer, Mr Sanusi Sa’ad, declined comment on the issue. (NAN)
