COEASU may end strike Tuesday as Union, board meet Wednesday, 09 July 2014 14:32. RESPITE may come the way of striking lecturers of Federal Colleges of Education early next week as relevant authorities have scheduled a crucial joint meeting to address their demands. This was disclosed Wednesday by the Chairman, Governing Council of Colleges of Education, Senator Emmanuel O. Anosike. He said the joint meeting with the College of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU), provosts, colleges governing board as well as representatives of Ministry of Education, which is scheduled for Tuesday next week will serve to address all the grey areas raised by the Union including issues of migration, salary arrears and victimization as raised by COEASU in their meeting with the technical committee early in the week. Anosike expressed optimism that with the level of intervention by the governing council, the striking body will compromise their earlier stand and return immediately to duty while negotiation continues. He said: What is holding us is the joint meeting, which has been scheduled for Tuesday next week. It will serve to discuss all the grey areas after which we will present the report to the Minister of Education, hold press briefing and afterwards, call off the strike. Hopefully, this is what we plan to do. We want to get into it fully. The government has tried and I think it is now left for the council members because they are the owners of the institutions. On the controversial salary arrears, which the lecturers have identified as one of the factors holding them back, Anosike noted that though the no work, no pay is a government policy, relevant bodies have intervened to ensure that their arrears are settled immediately the industrial action is suspended. We have a law that says that if you do not work, you will not be paid. The government implemented it but out of goodwill, it has said that if they suspend the strike and return to the classroom, the arrears would be paid, he said. He also expressed Councils position on Presidential letter on Polytechnics and Colleges of Education, stressing that it supercedes every other letter emanating from any quarter. The problem is that after the government has given its approval on the issue of migration for polytechnics and colleges of education, somewhere along the line, another letter emanated from the Ministry and this is not going down well with COEASU. Colleges of Education therefore requested the Ministry to give them their own letter before the strike is suspended but the issue is that the said letter emanated from the Head of Service and we have made our position known on the matter. Our position is that the letter from President Goodluck Jonathan supercedes any other letter and as such, we should concentrate on the content of Mr. President letters so that we can move on. The former lawmaker Anosike, also tasked government on equity and fairness in policies affecting all levels of tertiary education in Nigeria as a way to forestall inceasant strike actions among them. He believed that government should create a level play ground for lecturers at the polytechnics and colleges of education to aspire like their counterparts in universities. I believe that a wholistic approach to tertiary education will bring lasting solution to the problem of incessant strike actions. There should be fairness in government policies so that no group feels aggrieved leading to agitation after the other.
Posted on: Wed, 09 Jul 2014 16:28:28 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015