The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Ekiti state university (EKSU) chapter has taken on the university’s management over its failure to clear nine month-salary arrears.
The lecturers, while lamenting the ugly situation, claimed that it had increased the rate of illness and death among members.
It vowed no longer to tolerate the varsity management’s refusal to clear the backlog of unpaid salaries.
The chapter’s ASUU chairman, Dr Kayode Arogundade, in a press conference in Ado-Ekiti on Friday, explained that the geometric increase in the wage bill of the university from N380 million to N502 million caused the inability of the institution to pay up to date.
“The academic community of the university has become a source of scorn, ridicule and victim of embarrassment from the members of the larger society owing largely to inability to live up to their family expectations. We view this with serious concerns; more so that the university has not shown enough commitment to staff welfare.
“ASUU as a matter of urgency and civility impresses it on the management to pay up all the nine months outstanding salary of workers with immediate effect”, he said.
Arogundade said except the university pays all salary arrears, he could no longer guarantee good working relationship between his members and the vice chancellor, Professor Eddy Olanipekun, who is a former ASUU chairman.
He urged Governor Kayode Fayemi to implement the outcome of the Prof Bode Asubiojo-led visitation panel which vividly addressed the issues of tax, wage bill and other academic issues in the university.
According to him, the union won’t contemplate suing the state government for implementing the new tax law in the university since members have been paying even above what was stipulated by the personal income tax 2011.
