‎Ondo Poly workers protest unpaid minimum wage, disrupt academic activities

‎‎Workers of Ondo State-owned Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, have stalled academic activities in protest over unpaid minimum wage.

‎On Monday, when the protest began, the workers marched on the streets over what they described as the state government’s refusal to implement the new national minimum wage of N70,000 approved by the federal government. They also blocked the institution’s main gate in Owo.

‎The protest, organised by the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Polytechnics (SSANIP), was supported by the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP).

‎The institution’s SSANIP Chairman, Saka Nurudeen, lamented years of neglect of the polytechnic by successive Ondo State governments.

‎“It is no longer news that staff of Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, have been reduced to second-class citizens in Ondo State,” he said.

‎”While other workers in the state enjoy the new minimum wage, our members are still trapped on N18,000, a wage that became obsolete since 2019.”

‎Mr Nurudeen recalled that when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed the new national minimum wage into law in 2024, Ondo State commenced payment in October of the same year, but excluded workers of the polytechnic.

‎“For over 15 months now, other workers in Ondo State have been receiving the new wage, but the staff of this institution have been deliberately left out. Several appeals by unions on campus have yielded no results. This is unjust and unacceptable,” he added.

‎The union leader described the N18,000 minimum wage as “grossly inadequate” amid rising inflation and harsh economic realities.

“Our members can barely feed their families. Many of them have become objects of ridicule in their communities. Landlords now see them as financially unstable. This is an embarrassment to workers who serve in a higher institution,” Mr Nurudeen said.

“Ondo State belongs to all of us. We cannot continue to watch our members denied their legitimate entitlements while others enjoy theirs in the same state.”

‎The protesters insisted that the action would remain peaceful but firm until the management and the state government met their demands.

‎Also speaking, Chairman of ASUP, Arikawe Ade, called on Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa to intervene urgently in the matter.

‎‎“We appeal to the governor to rise to the occasion and correct this injustice. The minimum wage is not a privilege; it is a law. Our members deserve the same treatment as other workers in the state,” Mr Ade said.

‎The unions accused the state government of making what they termed “endless empty promises” while workers continue to suffer.

Meanwhile, the institution’s SSANIP Executive Committee, in a joint statement, said the protest was aimed at compelling the authorities to immediately implement the new minimum wage for the institution’s workers.

‎“For the people united can never be defeated. Our struggle is legitimate, and we will continue until justice is done,” the statement read.

The Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Igbekele Ajibefun, while responding to the protest, said the workers’ grievances would be addressed.

‎”We have invited them into a meeting and listened to their plights and demands,” he said.

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‎”We agreed that the institution’s gate should be open for academic and administrative activities.

‎”I told them to allow peace to reign and to allow us to present their demands to Mr Governor. So, their grievances will be looked into and addressed in no distant time.”

Other state-owned tertiary institutions had last year embarked on prolonged strikes for the same reasons.

‎The government later reached an agreement with the unions, promising to increase subventions to the institutions to enable them to pay the new minimum wage.