Staff of The Polytechnic, Ibadan on Wednesday rejected the Oyo State Tertiary Education Salary Scale by Oyo State Government for workers in the state Polytechnics and College of Education.
The position of the workers on the salary scale was contained in a communique issued after their recent meeting.
The communique, signed by the Chairman, Senior Staff Association of Polytechnics, The Polytechnics, Ibadan, Biodun Abegunde; Chairman, Non-Cademic Staff Union, Ibraheem Akande, and Representative of the teaching staff, Mr T.M Oyebola, stated the ground for rejecting the salary scale.
It stated that the Governing Council of the Institution was the only legitimate body saddled with discussion of salary and emoluments of the workers and not the state Ministry of Education or its agents.
According to it, the salary scale is absurd, and collapsing salaries scale of polytechnics and colleges of education without taking their peculiarities into consideration was a grave error on the part of the state government.
The communique read, “Oyo State Government is acting in breach of the Edict and Laws that established The Polytechnic, Ibadan by alienating the Governing Council in its rightful duties.
“The so-called Oyo State Tertiary Education Salary Scale published by Oyo State Government is an absurdity as the National Board for Technical Education is the regulatory body for Polytechnic Education in Nigeria. It is odd, absurd and repulsive that a scale of salary is put up by the Oyo State Government for workers in The Polytechnic, Ibadan.
“Collapsing the salary scales of both Polytechnics and College of Education in Oyo State as a single document without recognising the earlier unique nature of these Institutions and peculiarities of their salary scales is a grave error on the part of Oyo State Government. It is unprecedented.
“The odious draft of Oyo State Tertiary Education Salary Scale has struck out housing allowance for workers in The Polytechnic, Ibadan.
“It is observed that a salary table from all institution of comparable status in Nigeria captures basic and rent allowances. These are used in calculating pension and gratuity, thus anything at variance with this is not acceptable to the workers of The Polytechnic, Ibadan.”
