LAUTECH: ASUU Vows To Disrupt Academic Activities Over Unpaid Salaries

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has threatened to frustrate academic activities in Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) if the Osun State Government refuses to pay their two months’ outstanding salaries by the end of September.

The current government Osun state inherited unpaid salary arrears of eight months owed LAUTECH academic staff.

ASUU claimed that the Osun State Government which had planned to pay subvention between July and December 2019, only paid in July and refused to pay for August and September, making payment of salaries impossible.

During the Congress held on Wednesday, ASUU resolved to put the public on notice that it should not be blamed if academic activities at LAUTECH were disrupted again.

In a statement captioned: “LAUTECH: Trouble Looming Again,” and jointly signed by the ASUU LAUTECH Chairman and Secretary, respectively, Biodun Olaniran and Toyin Abegunrin, the union accused the Osun State Government of failing to release subventions since August to pay salaries of workers and making life unbearable for them.

According to the union, all requests to ensure that Osun State Government pays outstanding salaries have not yielded any result. Also, the union noted that members were being owed six years of unpaid Earned Academic Allowances, cooperative deductions and promotions arrears.

“The problem of poor funding that brought LAUTECH to its knees in 2016/2017 is far from being over. The University, since it came out of that crisis, has been managing to survive with the new administrations in Oyo and Osun states struggling to release the substantial part of monthly subventions for the payment of salaries.

“This brought some relief as the management struggles to attend to backlog of arrears through internally generated revenue. As a consequence, the University’s calendar started witnessing some stability. However, the whole story started changing when, in August 2019, the government refused to send the subvention for the payment of our salaries. All entreaties to the government to pay our salaries have not yielded any result. As we speak, the University is already in arrears of two months, that is, August and September, 2019 with no hope in sight as to when the salaries will be paid.

“This is in addition to the existing eight months salaries previously owed our members! The public must also be aware of other forms of indebtedness to our members. These include years of promotion arrears, Earned Academic Allowances claims for 2013-2018, Cooperatives’ deductions, etc. These are in addition to other statutory obligations to the University, which have been left unattended to by the governments.

“At a special congress held today, 25th September, 2019, the situation was reviewed with members expressing hardship in transporting themselves to work, among other myriads of hardships occasioned by the non-payment of salary. It was, therefore, resolved to put the government, the public and our students on notice that the Union should not be blamed if the on-going examinations and other academic activities are affected when by end of the month, that is, 30th September, 2019, the congress meets again to review the situation.”