RUGIPO workers demand end to 11-month unpaid salaries, marginalisation

Workers of Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, have cried out over their ill-treatment and marginalization, stating that they have been in excruciating anguish due to non-payment of eleven months and forty percent salary arrears.

The workers, in a press release issued by the Chairman, Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Polytechnic (SSANIP), RUGIPO, Chris Olowolade, condemned the cavalier and haughty handling of their welfare by concerned authorities ranging from the management of the institution to the state Ministry of Finance, Accountant-General Office, State Ministry of Education, and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).

In the press release, the workers asked why the Ondo State government decided to treat tertiary institutions workers as second fiddle, especially in terms of salary payment. They also queried the needless delay in the release of their subventions, stating that two weeks after paying other state workers, they would still be struggling to get their subventions.

“The Union considers it aptly fit to illumine the opaqueness of the general public regarding anomalies of the aforementioned concerned authorities and their iniquitous effects on the general wellbeing of Tertiary Institutions workers, especially RUGIPO workers, who have for so long maintained a reasonable level of forbearance and longanimity amidst acute sufferings,” the press release read.

The union also condemned the fractional payment of salaries to its workers by the management of the institution without any compunction, contrition, and penitence, stating that the situation was getting more deplorable and lamentable. They accused the management of duplicitously deluding the workers with the promise of improved salary payments immediately after the full and final settlement of the then First Bank Loan.

“The destinies of a number of RUGIPO workers have been obumbrated just because of the adumbration and duplicity of Management of the Institution. Workers were flippantly deluded that salary payments would be improved upon immediately after the full and final settlement of the then First Bank Loan, but to our utter dismay, the situation is getting more deplorable and lamentable,” the press release added.

The workers also berated the ill-treatment which the Ministry of Finance and Accountant-General Office were meting on Ondo State tertiary institutions concerning the release of subventions, despite the several passionate pleas of the union to proffer lasting panacea to the albatross around the neck of prompt release of their subvention.

“The muckety mucks of the congress now feel comfortable and contemptuously handle our plagues, especially during salary meetings and other important forums to address the excruciating pains in which Ondo State Tertiary Institutions’ workers, and more worrisome, RUGIPO workers are languishing. Why must they be casting a chill over our acute sufferings? Where then lies, the distillate of unionism and its concomitants? Must we allow selfish interest to cast a pall over our core values, as a formidable Union?” the press release asked.

The union called on the concerned authorities to take swift action to address their plight and put an end to the marginalization and ill-treatment of the workers.