The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) is threatening to shut down the nation’s Polytechnics if the government allows the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) to continue to intimidate and force its members into the IPPIS payment platform without first securing their emoluments.

The union is also accusing the government of not keeping faith with the memorandum of settlements signed with the union in 2017, while frustrating the renegotiation of its agreement with government which was supposed to have been concluded in December 2017

National President of the Union, Usman Dutse said in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja that after all efforts to make the government implement its memorandum of settlement to no avail, they have no option than to give the government a 21-day ultimatum beginning from 2nd of October.

Key issues in the dispute between the government and the union are: The non-implementation of the NEEDS Assessment report of 2014; Non release of promotion arrears of members as well as persistent shortfalls in the personnel releases of Federal Polytechnics since 2016; nonpayment of negotiated allowances in polytechnics; nonpayment of salaries and other staff entitlements in many state-owned institutions; non release of CONTISS 15 migration arrears; infractions in the appointment process of rectors in polytechnics; non passage of the amendment bill of the Polytechnics Act and victimization of union officers.

While saying that the government was trying to force its members into the IPPIS play platform for the payment of salaries of federal workers, Dutse said “Our union has been on the discussion table with officials of IPPIS as well as NBTE on modalities for a smooth and safe enrolment of members into the IPPIS platform.

The union accused the government of not being interested in smooth implementation of the memorandum of settlement, saying “the rapid response team set up for the purpose of monitoring the implementation of the terms of the MoS operates in serial default of its own terms. The team was designed to meet on a monthly basis to assess the performance indices in the MoS.

•Excerpted from The Nation report