The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, Osun State Polytechnic, Iree chapter, has given the management of the institution a seven-day ultimatum to act on its demands for an improved welfare package or risk industrial unrest on campus.
This is contained in a letter signed by the union’s Chairman and Secretary, Dr Olatunji Osunwole and Mr Wasiu Ayinde, respectively, and addressed to the polytechnic’s Rector, Mr Kehinde Alabi.
The letter was dated September 23, 2024, and obtained by our correspondent in Osogbo, the state capital, on Tuesday.
The union noted that it had previously given the management a 21-day ultimatum within which to address its demands. However, it claimed that after failing to accede to its request, it resolved to give another window of one week.
The letter read partly, “Served notice of 21-day ultimatum on the management to allow her good time to amass all available apparatuses within her reach to settle all outstanding obligations as stated earlier but to no avail till the expiration of the ultimatum on 22nd September 2024.
“Informed relevant stakeholders about the resolution of the congress of our union with the hope to have it settled but the abortive attempt was made by the agency whose jurisdiction covered harmonising industrial peace – that is, the Ministry of Labour and Employment.
“Regards to labour law for the issuance of a 21-day ultimatum to the affected party employer herein, long enough to nib the matter in the bud but still with no effect.
That a seven-day penultimate ultimatum (commencing today, 23/09/2024 to Sunday, 29/09/2024) is given to the management to cleverly seize this window of opportunity to sustain the present industrial peace in the polytechnic community.
“The union wishes to state that this is not an issuance of threat but the dictates of labour law in Nigeria which are strictly adhered to.”
In another letter also addressed to the Rector, dated September 2, 2024, obtained by US, the union had listed its concerns, including the short-payment of staff salaries and non-payment of statutory allowances by the management.
Also listed were payment of a peculiar allowance for June, July and August 2024; arrears for May, June and July 2016; payment of daily part-time teaching claims for 3rd semester 2022/2023, among others.
Efforts by our correspondent to get the management’s reaction to ASUP’s ultimatum failed as calls and text messages to the institution’s spokesperson, Dr Tope Abiola, hadn’t been replied to as of the time of filing this report.
