SSANU wants UI staff school teachers back in university payroll

The University of Ibadan chapter of Senior Staff Association of Nigerian University (SSANU) on Monday demanded the immediate reinstatement of staff school teachers into the university payroll.

Our correspondent reports that the union made the demand during a protest to the office of the Vice Chancellor of the university.

It was reported that the protest was led by UI Branch Chairmen of SSANU and Non-Academic Staff Union, Adewale Akinremi and Malachi Etim, respectively.

Akinremi said that failure on the part of management to return the teachers to university’s payroll would trigger an industrial action in the institution.

“The situation of many staff school teachers is degrading, scandalous and horrific, most of them cannot afford to provide food for their families,” he said.

The SSANU chairman said that the teachers, who were made to sign monthly Staff Return Forms, were also denied access to pay slips.

“Because of this denial of pay slips, they cannot tell exactly what they take home as salaries at the end of the month.

“The union cannot continue to tolerate this premeditated infliction of difficulty on our teachers,” he said.

Akinremi said the union was worried that the university had refused to comply with a court judgement delivered on December 5, 2016 which was in favour of the staff.

“Other federal universities have obeyed the court judgement which was in favour of the staff unions, we wonder why management of University of Ibadan refused to comply.

“The university has also refused to reply a letter on all the issues raised concerning staff school,” he said.

Addressing the protesters, Prof Ademola Ekanola, the university’s Deputy Vice Chancellor, urged SSANU to exercise patience, saying that management was not insensitive and oblivious to their plight.

“In the interim, an arrangement is ongoing to make provision for salaries to be paid very shortly before the end of the week.

“There will be a meeting also before the end of the week to have a long standing solution and final resolution to the issues,” he said.

The federal government had in 2015 removed names of staff school teachers from the pay-roll of federal universities.