Oyo state-owned tertiary institutions staff set to suspend 3-month-old strike

After over three months of strike actions, the teaching and non-teaching staff of all Oyo state-owned tertiary institutions are expected to suspend their industrial action on Thursday.

The staff of the state-owned tertiary institutions, under the auspices of the Joint Action Committee (JAC), have since April 12 been on strike over issues including inadequate monthly subvention to the institutions, persistent delays in salary payments, specifically demanding that workers in tertiary institutions be paid on 25th of every month like other public workers in the state.

Other issues include non-implementation of the 2021 agreement with the government to provide running costs to all institutions; non-payment of 2018/2019 salary arrears; need for substantive management in some institutions and fractional salary payments in College of Education, Lanlate.

It was gathered on Wednesday that the strike is to be suspended as the staff have started receiving their outstanding salaries, while also relying on promises by the governor, Mr Seyi Makinde, to have given direction to the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Education to work out means to address other issues.

Chairman, JAC, Oyo state-owned tertiary institutions, Mr Oyewumi Olusegun, in a conversation with Tribune Online, on Wednesday, affirmed that the strike will be suspended at its meeting to be held on Thursday.

“We are already receiving salary payments. This comes after we met with the governor two Saturdays ago.

“He made a promise to resolve our issues by providing funds and we understand that there are things we will not achieve instantly. So, we resolved that on payment of salary, we will suspend the strike while we continue to address other issues.

“We will have a meeting tomorrow (Thursday) to suspend the strike.

“The suspension is not that we have received salary in full but the governor has promised means of addressing it.

“We are suspending it on the trust that we have for the governor. He made a promise on our 2018/2019 arrears; he made a promise to ensure that we receive our salary in full.

“For the arrears, he said the Ministry of Finance has to work it out, the arrears, how many months are left, how to do it such that we receive it on a monthly basis. We also want to show understanding with the governor on the fact that payment of salary on the 25th of every month to everybody is not sustainable.”

Meanwhile, a staff of one of the affected tertiary institutions, in interaction with Tribune Online, said though he had to align with the decision of JAC, he wondered why the committee would not want a full implementation on all issues before calling off the strike.

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