The workers of College of Health Technology Calabar, COHTECH Cross River State earlier stormed Governor’s office in Calabar, demanding the implementation of a salary scale approved in 2011.
The workers, made of two groups, the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic ASUP and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Polytechnics SSANIP said the College was the only tertiary institution in the state that was yet to benefit from the Consolidated Polytechnics and Colleges of Education Academic Salary Structure, CONPCASS.
They said the institution had not enjoyed the CONTEDISS, which was agreed alongside the new minimum wage of NGN18, 000 in 2011.
Consequently, the two unions crippled learning activities at the health institution as they commenced a three-day warning strike on Monday.
Speaking to Governor Ben Ayade’s representatives at the Governor’s office in Calabar, the SSANIP chairman, Comrade Emmanuel Enyiegor said they were the only one among the institutions in their category that were yet to benefit from the new salary structure which was implemented in 2011.
We are protesting because of the non-implementation of the CONPCASS and CONTEDISS salary structure in the state, but has been implemented for Cross River University of Technology (CRUTECH), College of Education Akamkpa and ITM Ugep; only College of Health Technology Calabar is left behind.
He disclosed that they were invited for a meeting with the Deputy Governor which never held, adding that they had exhausted every avenue to reach out to government which kept claiming that there was paucity of funds for seven years.
He also said that the protest had kick started a three-day warning strike as activities at the school of health had been shut down and everything, including learning was now at a standstill.
Also speaking, ASUP COTECH chairman, Comrade Okon Ekpo Etim said they have been sidelined for close to a decade and can no longer take the evil treatment anymore and that if nothing was done after the three-day warning strike, they will take it to the next level.
He said that We are conducting a professional exam in the school for other people who are coming from other health institutions from other states to Cross River but if the strike continues, they won’t participate, so government must as a matter of urgency solve this problem; enough is enough, we can no longer keep silent and die being patient.”
Addressing the protesters, the representative of Governor Ben Ayade, his Special Adviser on Labour and Productivity, Comrade Effiong Ita Umo said “The State government is doing something about the matter and they are being attended to.
Source: Daily Post
No comments:
Post a Comment