THE Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) has lamented the non-implementation of the agreement reached with the Federal Government in 2013, threatening to embark on strike in the next two weeks if their demands are not met.
The stance was made known by the coordinator ASUP, Zone A, Kabir Yunusa, during a press conference in Kaduna at the weekend.
Yunusa, while going down memory lane, said the union went on an industrial action that lasted for nine months, in 2013, because the sector had suffered undue neglect like poor funding, discrimination and violation of signed agreement.
According to him, the strike was suspended because of the pleas of well-meaning Nigerians.
He noted that since then, the Federal Government had not deemed it fit to address some of the challenges being faced by polytechnics in the country.
‘With the new administration in the country, our union had made several and sustained efforts since December 2015 to draw their attention to these outstanding issues.”
According to Yunusa, the major grouse of the union with the federal and state governments was the non-implementation of the NEEDS Assessment report.
“As we speak, our members in the following states; Edo, Osun, Ekiti, Oyo, Benue, Imo, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Ondo, Kogi, Lagos, Ogun and Nassarawa, are owed salaries,” he said.
He also stated that some of their members were unjustifiably sacked or suspended by their polytechnics, lamenting that the alleged inaction of the regulatory body, the National Board for Technical Education, as well as Ministry of Labour and Productivity, had compounded their woes.
‘Failure to address some of these issues might force the union to embark on strike from August 22, 2016,” he added.