Breaking! Usurpation of offices: Yabatech workers threaten strike

The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Polytechnics, SSANIP, Yaba College of Technology, Yabatech, chapter, has given the Rector, Engineer Obafemi Omokungbe, two weeks to redress the situation whereby teaching staff have taken over some positions that are meant for non-teaching staff as prescribed by law.

The workers, who held a congress on campus on Thursday, listed the positions for which their members have been denied to include the Director, CITM, the Director, Works and Services, the Director, Physical Planning Unit, the Director, Consult and the Head of Fire Services.

In a communique at the end of their meeting which was signed by the Chairman, Mr Kayode Adekunle Samuel and the Secretary, Mr Odundayo Kolawole, they said a number of Federal Polytechnics had complied with the extant rules and regulations on filling such positions.

The workers listed Federal Polytechnics that complied with the extant rules in filling such positions to include the ones in Ado-Ekiti, Bauchi, Offa, Mubi, Bida among others.

They wondered why that of Yabatech would be an exemption.

“The position of the Revised Schemes of Service on the category of staff who should head these departments/units are very clear and unambiguous. The Union had written and met with the College management a good number of times to address this issue.

“The Union made a written representation to the College management on this issue on December 27, 2018, February 1, 2019, March 7, 2019, August 14, 2019, and February 25, 2021.

“The Union had done everything lawful to make the management see reason and do the needful, all to no avail. The national leadership of our Union had equally written to the National Board for Technical Education, NBTE and on the strength of the representation made by the national body to the NBTE, a letter was addressed by the NBTE to the Rector, Yaba College of Technology in September 2020,” Samuel said.

The SSANIP chairman added that the union would have no choice other than to use the necessary industrial tools to get their demands met if the deadline expires without the situation being redressed.