From Yakubu Busari, Jos
Gov Lalong
The union leaders of tertiary institutions in Plateau State have called off the indefinite seven weeks strike in the state after a negotiation with the state government.
The Joint Unions of Plateau State owned tertiary institutions, JUPTI had called the strike to press home some of their demand for improved welfare and payments of their outstanding salary arrears.
Briefing Journalists on Monday at the NUJ Press center in Jos, the spokesperson of the JUPTI Comrade Paul Dakogol said the unions representing College of Education Gindiri, CAST Kurgwi, College of Agriculture Garkawa, Colleges of Health Technology Pankshin and Zawan decided on April 23, 2019 to collectively declare an indefinite strike following the inability of the State government to address issues in contention- non Payment of the Outstanding Salary Arrears (NO Work No Pay) to Retirees and Deceased members:
He said: “While this Government made concerted efforts and pay the salary on “no work no pay’ basis to our members m the service, the families of our deceased colleagues and those who subsequently retired were yet to be paid. This negligence on the part of government became an issue of concern.
“The deductible monies of our members by the government through its e-Payment platforms due to our multipurpose cooperatives and gratuity accounts were withheld without justifiable reasons. These were for the months of February and March, 2019.
“The implementation of Treasury Single Account (TSA): As an irreversible policy of, the government, the implementation of TSA via the withholding of 25 per cent of students school fees without due consideration to fixed charges on overhead of the tertiary institutions by the ministry of finance resulted In the inefficient running of the institutions.
“While the yearly budget provisions of the government particularly on education repeatedly made provisions for subvention to meet the capital expenditure of these institutions, there have been no actual releases. For a long time now, some of these institutions have relied solely on TETFUND.
Hence, the Unions demanded that the government should save the ailing infrastructural conditions of these institutions through special interventions or the actual release of such subventions.
“For a substantial lifespan of these institutions, staffing has remained a grave concern. Since 2006 when the last general recruitment were done, both teaching and non-teaching staff strength has continued to fizzle. This is even more worrisome as the basic requirements for new programs and the accreditation of same are predicted upon sufficient human resources among others.”
He however stated that the suspension of the strike became imperative in view of the fact that state Government have been able to address some of the issues, during the strike and in the previous week entered into agreement with union on those issues they could not handle immediately.
“The issues already addressed while on strike include the payment of the ‘No Work No Pay’, the unpaid check up dues and Cooperative deductions, gratuity remittance for the months of February and March, 2019 and staff recruitment which the process is on-going.
“Other issues addressed via agreement include TSA implementation, Capital funds releases, peculiar allowances, etc.
“In the agreement, Government have approved the exemption of all the tertiary institutions from TSA, capital funding to be done in line with budgetary provision, Ministry of Finance to Iiaise with various institutions to design modalities for the release of withheld 25 per cent of IGR following the implementation of TSA then.
“Also, government promised to look into the payment of peculiar allowances to academic and non-academic staff upon the submission of financial implication as well as hasten the approval of memo on the payment of 24 months pension arrears now before the Governor. The agreements were reached on 14 June, 2019,” he concluded
