FUTA Teachers, Others Protest Unpaid 19 Months’ Salaries

Workers of the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), Ondo State, on Wednesday raised the alarm that the university owes them not less than 19 months salaries, which they alleged had left many of them in precarious situation.

The salary arrears were part of the concern raised by the workers during a protest by the Joint Action Committee (JAC), comprising unions of non-teaching staff in the university.

The protest by FUTA JAC was in compliance with the directive of the national body of the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria University (SSANU) and Non Academic Staff Union (NASU) that they should show their grievances over the alleged marginalisation of non-teaching staff in Nigerian universities.

During the protest, workers carried placards with various inscriptions condemning preferential treatment being given to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) members at the detriment of other workers in the university system.

Some of the placards read: ‘Give us our share of N30billion Earned Allowance’; ‘FG Should Pay Our Staff School Teachers 19 Months’ Salary’; ‘No to Discrimination Among Workers in Universities’; ‘Staff School Teachers Are Dying of Hunger’ among others.

Addressing journalists during the protest, the Chairman of FUTA branch of JAC, Mr Dele Durojaye, said it was high time the federal government did the needful to avoid total paralysis of the university system.

Durojaye, flanked by the Chairman of NASU, Mr. Aladerotohun Adebayo, said it was disheartening that the federal government gave only 20 per cent of the N30 billion released for Earned Allowance to non-teaching unions while ASUU alone got 80 per cent.

He said: “This is a lopsided, unfair, discriminatory and wicked act because it was clear that the federal government approved the maltreatment of non-teaching staff by vice chancellors."

The JAC chairman also called on the government to respect the National Industrial Court judgment of December 5, 2016, which declared that staff primary schools are bonafide staff of the universities.

He lamented that it was surprising that the government did not respect the judgment of the court, adding that the staff school teachers were being owed 19 months in FUTA while some universities had been paying percentages of salaries to their own teachers.

Durojaye, therefore, called on the federal government to correct the anomalies as the JAC had decided to hold zonal protest which would be followed by the national protest in Abuja, as a prelude to nationwide strike by all non-teaching staff workers if the federal government failed to act.