By; MOHAMMED KAWU, Bauchi
Combined academic staff of five tertiary institutions have resolved to go on two-week warning strike over the delayed payment of their monthly salaries by the Bauchi State Government.
The institutions through their joint action committee said that they were embarking on the warning strike from July 19 to 30, 2022 to press home their demands from the government.
The institutions are Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic, State College of Agriculture, Aminu Saleh College of Education, Misau College of Legal and Islamic Studies, and Adamu Tafawa Balewa College of Education.
Chairman and Executive Secretary of the Institutions’ Joint Action Committee, Mohammed Abdulkadir and Ibrahim Bala Abdallah respectively Friday gave conditions for the strike which included immediate payment of all its members outstanding salaries.
Committee also called for immediate resumption of promotion implementation and annual increment which were abruptly stopped without any official communication since the inception of the present government in the state.
Staff of the institutions also strongly objected to the untimely imposition of staff into the proposed Contributory Pension Scheme, a venture which, it said, is being avoided by some federal institutions due to untold hardships caused on workers.
According to the committee’s executives, if it becomes necessary, staff of the institutions need to be engaged at all levels for necessary inputs for betterment and security of members’ rights.
Staff also called for the implementation of the consequential adjustments which, they argued, was never finalized with the organized labour, as they similarly rejected the deductions/proposed increment in deductions for the Health contributory scheme otherwise called BASHMA.
Joint Action Committee further explained that it’s based on these and some other issues mentioned above that it held a meeting and resolved to convey the aforementioned information to the State Government for possible positive development.
“It is with deep sense of responsibility, trust and burden bestowed on us by our respective congresses that we convened this meeting. The journey so far has been so long. Forces and life challenges have been so unimaginably unpredictable”, JAC leaders said.
Committee members stated that in the cause of seeking for justice, they interacted with office of the Head of Civil Service, the Accountant General, the Commissioner of Education, Council Chairmen, and various stakeholders in the state.
“Equally of note is the laudable effort of His Excellency Sen. Abdulkadir Bala Mohammed, Executive Governor, in trying to clean and have a robust payroll payment system for the state. JAC has equally written to the Government series of letters, containing details of its problems/ demands/anomalies and consequences but without tangible result”.
JAC said that it finally wrote a letter to the Executive Governor, Senator Abdulkadir Bala abdulkadir Mohammed, urging him to intervene in their plight, in which the committee issued a one-month ultimatum for the state government to address their demands.
