ASUP suspends planned industrial action

The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, has suspended its plan to embark on strike to protest the new scheme of service approved by the National Board for Technical Education, NBTE.

Chairman of the union, Federal Poly, Offa chapter, in Kwara State, Dr Atilola Moses Idowu, disclosed this to DAILY POST in Ilorin on Tuesday.

He said the institution is in full session following the suspension of the strike action on Monday.

The decision to suspend the strike action was taken at the union’s NEC emergency meeting on July 22, 2024, to review its position on the controversial new scheme of service approved by the NBTE.

“The NEC resolved to suspend the earlier scheduled industrial action in recognition of the fact that the demands of the union have been met substantially,” a statement by the National President of the union, Shammah Kpanja, stated.

The statement appreciated the productive intervention of the Federal Minister of Education and the receptive disposition of the Executive Secretary of the NBTE in arriving at the decision as well as the media for being worthy partners.

DAILY POST reports that the two weeks ultimatum which was to expire on Monday, July 22, 2024, involved vexed issues in the new scheme of service for polytechnics as released by the NBTE on June 19, 2024.

The union has reviewed the document and identified several positions that fundamentally altered the tertiary education system of polytechnics in the country, and deepened the condemnable and age long discrimination against holders of the Higher National Diploma certificates.

The new scheme of service, according to the union, distorted employee relativity in the Nigeria polytechnic system and unnecessarily expanded the overheads of the institutions, among others misgivings.

The union, therefore, demanded a suspension of the implementation of the contentious provisions and the commencement of a thorough review through a stakeholders’ engagement process.

The 15-day ultimatum was to provide the government ample time to address the grievances of the union or face diverse forms of industrial action by the aggrieved members.

DAILY POST gathered that the union’s leadership,was invited to a tripartite meeting with the leadership of the NBTE and Federal Ministry of Education on July 19, 2024, where it was resolved that the implementation of the flawed document on the new scheme of service be suspended and a review process be initiated in line with the demands of the union.