The Taraba State University chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Tuesday declared an indefinite strike after a meeting of the association.
The University’s ASUU Chairman, Samuel Shikaa, said on the sidelines of the meeting that the association resolved to embark on the industrial action to demand compliance to an agreement the state government and the university management signed with the association.
He listed some of their demand to include, the commencement of their Contributory pension scheme, prompt payment of their Earned Academic Allowance (EAA), among others.
According to Shikaa, Taraba state university has no pension arrangement. and as a result the “families of some of our colleagues that have died only received paltry sum for burial rites which to us is not a terminal benefit. To some others, who left this institution to other universities, they have nothing to benefit.”
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He also explained that some of its members are ready to commence deduction from their take home for the contributory pension scheme but they want government commitment to ensure its percentage of the contribution would be honoured.
“On EAA, the allowance for excess workload since 2013 has accumulated and has not been paid.”
Responding to the strike, the Vice-Chancellor of Taraba state University, Vincent Tenebe said 75% of the demand by members of ASUU has been met.
Tenebe explained that the strike was unnecessary and urged members of the union to call off their demonstration for the sake of the students, while they continue negotiation with the management of the institution.
He also dismissed claims that the government was not ready to comply with its part payment to the contributory pension scheme.
“Ever since the MoU and MoA were signed with ASUU the management and government went into action and I can tell you that 75% of their demand has been met,” he said.
“This means that every staff that keys into this pension scheme will contribute 7.5% of his basic salary while the government will also contribute 7.5% which would be sent to the administrator of a pension for saving till when the staff retires.
“After that approval, I informed all the members of staff of this university through a circular that the governing council has approved the commencement of the pension scheme and we went further to appoint a desk officer from the registry for the pension scheme.
“We also invited some pension administrators who came to sensitize and also did some marketing of their companies to staff for them to fill their forms and submit to the school management for the commencement of the pensions scheme.
“Since 2018, they have failed to produce their pension administrators and their account numbers for management to utilize. And in fact, this university wanted to be used as a role model for other institutions in this state that this is doable.
