• LAUTECH sacks 255 workers, ARD kicks
From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III, has promised to hold a meeting with Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi, with a view to finding a lasting solution to the face-off between the state-owned six tertiary institutions and the government over 15 months salary arrears.
The monarch made the promise when the leadership of the affected institutions visited him yesterday to enlist his support for the’Operation Occupy Oyo State Government Secretariat’ with at least 20,000 academic and non-teaching staff next month.
Chairman, Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the institutions, Prince Adeniyi Afeez, who led members of other five trade unions in the six institutions to the palace, disclosed the planned occupation.
The affected institutions are The Polytechnic, Ibadan; The Ibarapa Polytechnic, Eruwa; The Oke-Ogun Polytechnic, Saki; Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, Oyo; Oyo State College of Agriculture and Technology, Igboora; and Oyo State College of Education, Lanlate.
The institutions had been on indefinite strike since November 2, this year, over issues bordering on salary arrears and reduction of subvention to the institutions to 25 percent, which the government did to reduce cost of governance.
Oba Adeyemi appealed to the workers not to go ahead with the plan, as he asked the trade unions to give him time to meet with the state government on the matter.
Alaafin said as the workers have honoured him as a father to resolve the issue, he would ensure the matter is resolved amicably as soon as possible.
Afeez stated: “We, workers of the six state-owned tertiary institutions are on strike because we are being owed over 15-month salary arrears by Oyo State government.
“We paid homage to Oba Adeyemi to intimate him with the pain and agony the affected workers are passing through due to the unpaid salary arrears and for him to intervene as well as prevail on Governor Ajimobi to restore 100 per cent personnel subvention to the state-owned tertiary institutions and clear the backlog of the salary arrears.”
In another development, management of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) Teaching Hospital has sacked about 255 workers of the institution.
An internal memorandum signed by one A. M. Ajiferuke, dated December 27, confirmed the disengagement of workers of the teaching hospital jointly owned by Oyo and Osun states.
According to a report, the list also revealed that 299 other workers of the hospital are to be redeployed to the state service, bringing the total of affected workers to 554.
The internal memo read: ‘’Kindly find below the list of disengaged staff as directed by the Oyo State Government and approved by the board at its meeting on Thursday, December 21, 2017.’’
It was learnt that more LAUTECH workers would be sacked as the owner-states begin the process of ‘weeding’.
When contacted, Public Relations Officer of LAUTECH, Akin Fadeyi, said he could not comment because LAUTECH is different from LAUTECH Teaching Hospital.
Meanwhile, the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), LAUTECH Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, has vowed to resist the recent transfer of 55 resident doctors in the hospital by the state government.
The association’s chairman, Dr. Sebastine Owoi, described the move by the government as illegal and against medical practice because resident doctors should not be transferred in the same manners with medical officers.