Labour threatens to shut down unity schools over non-payment of salary

The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), has threatened to shut down Kings College, Lagos and Federal Government College, Idoani, Ondo State, over the failure to pay the outstanding salary of education officers  since May.

Already, the union said it has concluded mobilisation to shut down the schools unless the Federal Government takes urgent steps to pay the salary.

The secretary general of ASCSN, Alade Bashir Lawal, said in a statement that education officers in the schools would not resume classes on Thursday, September15, unless the salary owed them since May  was paid by Wednesday,  September14

Lawal regretted that since May, education officers  at  King’s College, Lagos and the Federal Government College, Idoani, Ondo State, have not been paid in violation of Public Service Rules (PSR).

“It seems that the decision not to pay salaries to education officers in these schools since May, is an experiment which will be extended to other schools in due course if there is no resistance from the workers and their Trade Unions as the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Budget Office of the Federation, have continued to shift blames on the matter.

The ASCSN scribe  stressed that the other 102 federal unity colleges have been mobilised to join the strike if the Federal Government still refused to pay education officers in the two schools their salaries.

The ASCSN regretted that the  current  Federal Government which promised to change the content and form of governance for the better, had started to owe workers their salaries after they had rendered service to the country.

“The salaries of civil servants were meagre and could not take them to the bus stop let alone take them home when paid regularly. Now that the salaries could not be paid at all, it had been a tale of hardship for the  education officers, some of whom could no longer afford to buy medication to treat themselves after going to the hospitals and getting prescriptions.

“It is, indeed, sad that the Federal Government has decided to subject these workers and their families to untold hardship, whereas ,the welfare of the citizens is the main reason why governments exist in the first instance.”

The ASCSN, therefore, urged the Federal Government to take urgent steps and ensure that salaries of education officers in these schools  since May  is paid without further delay so as to douse tension that had been building up not only in the two schools but also in the other 102 federal unity colleges over the issue.

The union, accordingly, advised parents and guardians not to release their children and wards to resume classes at Kings College and Federal Government College, Idoani,  by  September 15 in order not to subject them to avoidable hardship, unless the salaries owed education officers in the schools were paid by Wednesday, September14 .