The Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) Wednesday boycotted classes in protest against the Federal Government’s insistence on its no-work-no-pay policy.
Chairman Olayinka Awopetu said the government was wrong to have paid lecturers half salaries in October after they suspended their eight-month strike over the refusal of the government to honour its agreements with the union.
Speaking during their emergency congress, Awopetu said the protest was to let everyone know that ASUU in general and FUTA branch, in particular, has condemned the casualization of academics and the criminalization of the strike.
The chairman said: “We didn’t go on strike because we wanted to go on strike but because the government failed to do its own part, so we can’t be punished for that.
“The way forward for the Federal Government to do needful, pay us our money, the job they said we didn’t do is the job we are doing now and we will still continue to do because we discard our annual leaves so that it is made continuous, so it is not possible for the government to say we aren’t working.”
