Employees of the Delta State University (DELSU), Abraka under the aegis of Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian University (SSANU), National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) and Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) have threatened to embark on strike over unpaid salaries
and two years promotion arrears.
Already, they have issued a one-week warning to the university management and the state government to pay failure which they would downtools.
Chairman of ASUU, Prof Abel Diakparomre, confirmed that they had been working without pasalaries.
Diakparomre said that the usual peaceful atmosphere in the university was gradually being eroded “as a result of the Delta State government’s refusal to pay the staff salaries of May and June 2016 in addition to the non-payment of salaries to the staff promoted in 2014 and 2015.
Describing
the university as the third best start in the country, he said that the non-commitment of the state government to the workers’ welfare was gradually affecting the standard of the institution.
He pointed out that the state government’s refusal to pay their salaries might affect the second semester examination slated for next week.
According to him, some of the workers drawn from the four unions were already being attracted by other universities in Africa, stressing that the union could no longer guarantee the stay of staff seeking greener pasture elsewhere.
Stressing that the situation would amount to brain drain in the university, he said that the development might lead to the de-accreditation of some of the departments and faculties in the institution.
While disclosing that the wage bill of the university was about N411 million, he insisted that the workers might not continue to work on empty stomach and that many of the staff earn less than their status as professors “because staff promoted since 2014 still receive salaries of lower ranks that they were”.
