OAU NAAT protest five-month withheld salaries, allowances

On Wednesday, members of the Ile-Ife branch of the National Association of Academic Technologists at Obafemi Awolowo University peacefully protested the Federal Government's failure to pay their withheld salaries for more than five months and the unpaid allowance arrears. 

The demonstrators, who had assembled on campus for the protest, also charged that the Federal Government had broken a 2009 contract with them. 

Equipped with signs that read different things, they promised not to let up until they received their due.

Shortly after the demonstration, OAU NAAT chairman Mr. Matthew Oluwaniyi, accompanied by his vice, Aminu Rotimi, briefed reporters that the Federal Government had withheld union members' salaries because of the five-and-a-half-month-long strike in 2022. 

Oluwaniyi added that the Federal Government had not fulfilled its commitment and that union members had only gotten one month's worth of the October withholding salaries.

He said, “We are here to express our grievances with the Federal Government of Nigeria regarding the treatment of our union. In 2022, university-based unions went on strike. Our union was on strike for five and a half months, and the Federal Government withheld our salaries for that period.

“Despite all our pleas, meetings, and negotiations with the Federal Government, our withheld salaries have still not been paid.

“Last week, we received an alert that seemed to indicate the payment of one of our five and a half months’ withheld salaries, but up till now, the Federal Government has not communicated with us.

“The Federal Government is also owing us arrears of allowances, which is why we are coming out to let people know that the Federal Government is not being fair to us.

“We signed an agreement with the Federal Government in 2009, and up until now, that agreement has not been fully implemented. One of the things the Federal Government failed to implement in the agreement is our occupational hazard allowance.”

Source