Workers of Olusegun Agagu University of Science and Technology, Okitipupa, Ondo State, on Tuesday staged a protest against the non-implementation of minimum wage and wage award in the institution.
According to the the News Agency of Nigeria, the institution’s gate was locked, while the protest caused gridlock on the Okitipupa-Igbokoda Expressway as protesters blocked part of the highway.
The protest was said to have disrupted academic and commercial activities in the environs.
The workers unions involved in the protest include the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities, Non-Academic Staff Unions and Allied Educational Institutions, and the National Association of Academic Technologists.
Speaking with journalists, Chairman of Joint Action Congress, JAC, of the unions, Mr Temidayo Temola, disclosed that it was an injustice for the state government not to implement the minimum wage of N30,000 in 2019, adding that payment of the wage award of N35,000 was sectional, as university workers in the state were not paid.
He added that the unions had made several representations to the state government without success, stating that the only option left was protest.
Temola identified the agitations include non-implementation of 2019 minimum wage, discrimination in the payment of N35,000 wage award and delay in release of subvention to the institution.
“Subsidy removal affected all of us; we go to the same market, board the same buses and face the same hardship. So why the discrimination in wage award payment by not including university workers?
“We are university workers and not slaves in our land. So we call on Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa to as a matter of urgency intervene on these issues,” Temola added.
