Non-teaching staff of the Bayelsa
State-owned Niger Delta University,
Wilberforce Island, have embarked on an indefinite strike.
The employees, under the auspices of the Joint Action Committee of NAAT,NASU and SSANU, NDU said in Yenagoa on Wednesday that their action was to protest non-payment of salaries for seven months.
The workers further said that the
government had been unable to address issues affecting them.
According to them instead of
addressing their problems the
government went ahead to issue a
statement withdrawing from payment of NDU staff salaries.
The workers’ position was contained in a communique signed by the Chairman,National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), Dienagha Ekeipre; Chairman, Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Fakidoma Wilcox; and Chairman, Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU), Kenneth Akpoafagha.
The communique said: ”We hereby
recall our ‘sit-at-home industrial action’ which was suspended on August 29,2016.
”We are against the government’s plan to downsize/retrench staff of the university. The present staff strength of the university is grossly inadequate in line with the National Universities Commission’s guidelines.
”We also embark on the industrial
action because of the government’s
decision to arbitrarily increase students’ school fees.
”Based on the unfruitful discussion with the state government and the reasons given above, the unions under the umbrella of the Joint Action Committee,NDU chapter, resume the suspended industrial action with effect from this
week.”
Efforts to get the reaction of the
Commissioner for Education,
Mr Markson Fefegha, were unsuccessful as calls to his mobile phone indicated that it was switched off.
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