ASUU Protest Years Of Unpaid Entitlements In UniCal
Placard-carrying members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, University of Calabar Chapter, Wednesday, protested over years of unpaid entitlements and salaries.
Some of the placards carried inscriptions such as ‘pay our CES arrears, pay our GSS arrears, pay our post graduate thesis supervision, pay our promotion arrears, pay our study fellowship and conference attendance arrears.’
Chairman of ASUU, UNICAL chapter, John Edor, who addressed Journalists during the protest said the unpaid salaries and arrears range from between 4 to 6 years depending on the sub head, and that they have been asking for their arrears, saying the COVID-19 pandemic and IPPIS monster compounded their ‘vagaries and vissititutes.
He said “Our grievances are that for a number of years now members of ASUU, University of Calabar Chapter have been working and our entitlements have not been paid to us. Such entitlements include teaching of GSS Courses, Graduate Thesis Supervision Allowance, CES Courses, Sandwich programmes, Pre-degree and promotion arrears.
“Some of our members had been employed and they commenced payment of their salaries but a backlog of their salaries is left unpaid and that is what we call salary arrears. Even if the federal government has refused to pay our salaries, what we have earned which is not one, two, or three but some are running into five, six years should be immediately paid to us.
“We have been asking for our entitlements for long but the COVID-19 pandemic has compounded our vagaries and vissititutes. The lock down has made it impossible for us to go and source for other legitimate means of livelihood to feed our families.”
According to him, the protest was only the beginning, saying they are bent on embarking on ‘Operation Occupy UNICAL’ if their entitlements are not paid.
No member of the institution’s management was on ground to address the protesting lecturers probably due to the fact that the institution was currently in the final stages of selecting a new Vice Chancellor to replace the outgoing Professor Zana Akpagu.
