Bauchi’s tertiary institutions declare 2-weeks warning strike, seek better working conditions
By Mohammed Kake Misau, Bauchi
Bauchi state own tertiary institutions has through the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of Academic and Non Academic Staff Unions resolved to embark on 14 days warning strike, beginning from Wednesday next week.
As contained in a press statement jointly signed by the Chairman and Secretary General of JAC, Abdulkadir Mohammed and Ibrahim Bala Abdallah on Friday, the institutions said that the industrial action will take effect Wednesday 19th to Sunday 30th July, 2022.
The JAC said that the warning strike was aimed at drawing the attention of the government to the legitimate demands of its members.
JAC is also demanding that all its members with outstanding salaries should be paid immediately just as it called for immediate resumption of promotion implementation and annual increment which were abruptly stopped without any official communication since the inception of Governor Bala Mohammed led PDP government.
The JAC further holds strong objection to the untimely imposition of its staff into the proposed Contributory Pension Scheme, a venture that is being avoided by some Federal institutions due to untold hardships caused on workers.
It however stated that if it becomes necessary, “we need to be engaged at all levels for necessary inputs for the betterment and security of our members’ rights” .
JAC is also calling for the implementation of the consequential adjustments which was never finalized with the organized labour rejecting the deductions/proposed increment in deductions for the Health contributory scheme otherwise called BASHCMA.
It lamented that, instead, the June 2022 salary came with additional casualties, some of which had their cases resolved earlier on; in some, cases were lingering for months, while others are freshly added.
Though JAC applauded the attempt of the government to start looking into the issue of promotions, it declared that, “We are watching with keen interest and hoping that other entitlements that go with it are also included, such as the annual increments”.