Eko Hot Blog reports that amidst the convocation ceremony at Olusegun Agagu University of Science and Technology, Okitipupa, Ondo State, workers under the Joint Action Committee of all Tertiary Institutions staged a protest on Monday.
The protest was aimed at drawing attention to the non-payment of the N35,000 wage award by the state government.
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While the state government had begun paying the wage allowance to state civil servants since November 2023, the workers of tertiary institutions were yet to receive the same.
The protesters, comprising members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, the Non-Academic Staff Union, and the National Association of Academic Technologists from Ondo State-owned tertiary institutions, chanted solidarity songs and carried placards with inscriptions such as “All we are saying, pay us wage award,” “We deserve N35,000 wage award, pay us,” and “We patronise the same market, pay us N35,000 wage award.”
Speaking at the protest, the state JAC Chairman of the institution, Dayo Temola, expressed displeasure over the government’s alleged inability to pay the wage award and other allowances. He said, “Our joint demand is that they should pay us our N35,000 wage award that had been paid to all categories of workers in the state. We are also demanding the implementation of the 2019 minimum wage.”
Temola further stated, “We are in 2024, yet we have not got the 2019 minimum wage. It is shameful, and we patronise the same market as other workers who have been receiving. Everybody knows what is currently going on in the country; even our current salaries can’t take us to the office again for a month.”
The JAC Chairman also demanded an increase in the university’s monthly subvention by 100 percent. “The government promised us N91 million on paper and has been giving us N63 million. It is far lower than the wage bills of the university. As we speak, the university owns billions of naira from cooperatives and some other allowances. That is our agitation,” he said.
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It was gathered that the state governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, who was present at the institution for the convocation, appealed to the angry workers and scheduled a meeting with the union leaders on Tuesday.
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