Salaries/Wages Demands: Bauchi Five Tertiary Institutions Declare 2-Weeks Warning Strike
By Khalid Idris Doya
The Joint Action Committee of Bauchi State Tertiary Institutions has formally declared a fourteen (14) days warning strike effective Wednesday, 19th July, 2022 to Sunday 30th July, 2022 to draw the attention of the state government to its legitimate demands.
Addressing a press conference yesterday, the JAC chairman Abdulkadir Mohammed gave the committee’s demands as immediate payment of all its members outstanding salaries.
The JAC consists of five higher institutions including Adamu Tafawa Balewa College of Education, Kangere, A. D. Rufa’i College of Education, Legal and General Studies, Misau; Aminu Saleh College of Education, Azare; Bauchi State College of Agriculture, Ali to cimie. Bauchi; and Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic, Bauchi.
Committee called for immediate resumption of promotion implementation and annual increment which were abruptly stopped without any official communication since the inception of the present government in the state.
Chairman also said that the Joint Committee of the institutions strongly objected to the untimely imposition of staff into the proposed Contributory Pension Scheme, a venture which, it said, is being avoided by some federal institutions due to untold hardships caused on workers.
According to the committee, If it becomes necessary, staff of the institutions need to be engaged at all levels for necessary inputs for betterment and security of members’ rights.
Abdulkadir Mohammed also called for the implementation of the consequential adjustments which, he recalled, was never finalized with the organized labour, members rejected the deductions/proposed increment in deductions for the Health contributory scheme otherwise called BASHMA.
Mohammed explained that it’s based on these and some other issues mentioned above that JAC held a meeting and resolved to convey the aforementioned information to the State Government for possible positive development.
“It is with a deep sense of responsibility, trust and burden bestowed on us by our respective congresses that we convened this meeting. The journey so far has been so long. Forces and life challenges have been so unimaginably unpredictable”, the secretary said.
Committee further explained that in the cause of seeking for justice has interacted with the office of the Head of Civil Service, the Accountant General, the Commissioner of Education, Council Chairmen, and various stakeholders in the State.
“Equally of note is the laudable effort of His Excellency Sen. Abdulkadir Bala Mohammed, Kauran Bauchi, Executive Governor of Bauchi State, in trying to clean and have a robust payroll payment system for the State. JAC has equally written to the Government series of letters, containing details of its problems/ demands/anomalies and consequences but without tangible result”.
