Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) has directed its members nationwide to go to work only two days in a week until the federal government attends to its demand of a 200 per cent increase in salary.
COEASU national president, Dr Smart Olugbeko, in a statement yesterday, said the decision was reached at the union’s extraordinary meeting held on Tuesday, July 18, 2023, owing to the difficulty being experienced by its members to get to work as a result of hike in the price of petrol.
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He said the removal of fuel subsidy by the federal government two months ago raised the price of a litre of petrol by 250 percent.
“This worsened the inflationary rate on the cost of transportation, food and other essential commodities and impoverished the Nigerian people.
“Workers, including staff of colleges of education, kept faith with the government and chose to endure the untold hardship thinking it would be only for a while as the government promised to roll out palliative measures.
“Alas! while our capabilities to sustain hope were already exhausted, the price of petrol rose further to ₦650 per litre.
“Now, the leadership of the union has been inundated by members’ complaints that they could no longer go to work as a result of hike in the price of petrol and resultant high cost of transportation,” he said.
He, therefore, explained that it became inevitable for the union to direct members to go to work only two days weekly.
He added that an emergency NEC meeting would be convened to ratify the decision to decide the specific days of the week members are to go to work.
“The present salary of staff of colleges of education was approved in 2010, 13 years ago.
“This means we have been on the same salary since 2010 while petrol prices rose intermittently from ₦65/N70 in 2010 to ₦650 in 2023 (tenfold increase).
“Our salary structure which is subject to renegotiation at three-year intervals has remained static for 13 years, skipping four due renegotiations.
“We call on the federal government to urgently do the needful because the inevitable action of the union against this hardship will have devastating effects on the students.
“As it will lead to a prolonged academic calendar – a semester of 16 weeks will become 32 weeks or more; while teaching practice exercises of six months will become 12 months,” he added.