Kwara tertiary institutions threaten strike over minimum wage

The staff of Kwara-owned tertiary institutions have issued a 14-day ultimatum to commence strike.

According to NAN, AbdulLateef Yahya, the state PRO of the Committee of Unions in Tertiary Institutions (CUTI), issued a statement with respect to the planned industrial action.

Yahya said, within the stipulated period of 14 days, the state government should implement the national minimum wage or risk industrial action in all the institutions.

The PRO also disclosed that the resolution was reached during the statewide tour of CUTI.

He said the union had consulted with stakeholders through joint congresses at the Colleges of Education in Oro and Lafiagi as well as College of Arabic and Islamic Legal Studies (CAILS), Ilorin.

“Addressing separate congresses in colleges, the state CUTI chairman, Oladimeji Gegele, described the exclusion of the state tertiary institutions from the implementation of new minimum wage as unfair,” the statement read.

“He said that all efforts by the Committee, through several letters and meetings with the state government representatives on the need to include CUTI in the minimum wage, were futile.

“Comrade Gegele expressed discontent at the delay tactics of government on the minimum wage implementation for members.”

The union said the statewide joint congresses were designed to acquaint their members with the update and seek their response on the way forward.

Earlier, the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) had threatened to go on strike if the federal government (FG) reneged on what it described as its existing agreement with the body.

This had followed after the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) had, on February 14, declared a one-month strike over FG’s failure to meet its demands.