Academic Staff Union of Universities, Benue State University branch on Friday commenced an indefinite strike.
The union had in a statement issued by the branch chairman and secretary, Comrade Kwaghfan Tarnongo, and Terrumun Gajir, respectively made available to journalists on Friday said that the strike which was declared Thursday after it’s meeting is going to be ‘total, indefinite and comprehensive’.
The union accused the University management of refusal to address its welfare concerns, despite series of engagements and cited a tripartite agreement reached in January 2023 between the Benue State Government (BNSG), BSU Administration and Governing Council and ASUU-BSU.
The agreement, according to the union was increased funding to the university to address the issues of promotion and annual increment was a road map to industrial harmony in BSU.
The union noted that the state government had kept its part of the agreement and had continued to sustain the additional funds to the university for the specific purposes of implementing promotions and annual increment and to defray the accumulated arrears thereof.
It however regretted that the university management having collected the additional funds had refused to pay the staff their entitlements.
Consequently, the union in the statement itemized reasons for embarking on the indefinite strike, among them are; “Implementation and payment of accrued arrears of 2021, 2022, and 2023 promotions
“Implementation and payment of accrued arrears of annual incremental step, April 2023 salary arrears, shortfall in the salaries of staff of the College of Health Sciences.
Others are; “Payment of Earned Academic Allowance, payment of sundry allowances(PG, GST, EPS, SANDWICH etc)
“Non enrolment/implementation of National Health Insurance Scheme (NHTS) amongst other issues.
“ASUU BSU issues this statement to inform the public about the reasons for the current strike and the efforts the Branch had made to avert it through dialogue with the BSU Administration. We regret that our efforts at dialogue have not achieved the desired expectations.
The Public Relations Officer of the University, Tse Vanger, also confirmed the notification of strike by ASUU said that management was meeting as of the time of filing this report.
