Assembly Urges Workers To End Strike

The Osun State House of
Assembly  has appealed to the Joint Negotiating Council (JNC) of the Non-academic Staff Union of state-owned tertiary institutions to call off its three- month-old strike.
The House made the appeal at a joint meeting of JNC, Head of Service and the Commissioner of Finance, Mr Akintunde Adegboye, on Tuesday in Osogbo.
Members of non-academic staff union of the institutions embarked on strike on March 11 over non-remittance of their contributory pension funds and poor condition of service, among others.
Addressing the meeting, the speaker of the House, Mr Najeem Salaam, said the
House would do everything within its power to address the union’s demands.
Salaam gave assurance that the House would consider the inclusion of the union in the new 65 year retirement age demanded by them.
“We want to appeal to you to return to class and believe us; we will consider your demands.
“Strike cannot solve the problem but it will rather worsen the situation. We are appealing to you to return to work for the future of our children,” he said.
The speaker reaffirmed the commitment of the House to ensuring remittance of their pension deductions to the appropriate managers.
The commissioner said that government would address the gap noticed in the contributory pension of the union.
Earlier, JNC chairman, Mr Olusoji Fasipe, said government had not been remitting their pension deduction into the appropriate quarters in the last nine months.
Fasipe said the union was also demanding that the new retirement age of 65 years be extended to the non-academic staff.
He urged government to improve the condition of service of members of the union.
“We want to appeal to government to look into our demands, especially the issue of 65 years retirement age for the non-academic staff, and prompt remittance of our contributory pension to the appropriate quarters.
“The last time we received alert on our contributory pension was June 2013 and this is not acceptable to us.”
Fasipe promised to communicate the outcome of the meeting to the union’s congress for consideration.