Employees at the Rufus Giwa Polytechnic in Owo, Ondo State, protested on Wednesday at not receiving their full ten months’ worth of wages and benefits.
During the demonstration, the institution’s main gate was blocked by the irate employees, who were supporting the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions and the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Polytechnics, RUGIPO branches.
With their fists full of leaves, the demonstrators yelled anti-school and anti-state government chants.
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They demanded that the state government implement a N35,000 salary award for workers at the polytechnic in accordance with federal regulations, and that it pay all outstanding salaries of its members that have been unpaid for more than ten months.
Speaking about the development, SSANIP Chairman Comrade Nafiu Okoro claimed that some polytechnic workers had died prematurely as a result of discrepancies in salary payments to union members.
According to Okoro, the administration of the state-owned polytechnic owed its employees more than ten months’ worth of wages.
“Every non-teaching employee at NASU and SSANIP agreed that the government should cover all of our unpaid salary, which total more than ten months.
“The institution should receive the N35,000 palliative wage that is currently being paid to workers in Ondo State.”
At the time this story was filed, Mr. Femi Agagu, the state commissioner for education, science, and technology, was not accessible for comment. His phone rang but was not answered, and he had not responded to a text message.