Plateau tertiary institutions suspend seven –week-old strike

By Kingsley Chukwuka, Jos

The Joint Union of Plateau state owned Tertiary Institutions (JUPTI) has called off its seven- week-old strike.

The institutions include Plateau state Polytechnic, College of Education Gindiri, College of Arts and Science Technology, Kurgwi, College of Agriculture, Garkawa and the Colleges of Health Technology Pankshin, and Zawan respectively.

Speaking at a press briefing in Jos, the Plateau state capital, Chairman of the joint union, Comrade Paul Dakogol said the state government was able to address some of the issues during the strike and last week it entered into agreement with the union on those issues they could not handle immediately.

According to him, the issues already addressed while on strike include, the payment of withheld salaries, the unpaid check up dues and cooperative deductions, gratuity remittance for the months of February and March 2019 and staff recruitment which is ongoing.

He added that the state government has approved the exemption of all the tertiary institutions from the Treasury Single Account and has promised to look into the payment of peculiar allowances to academic and non- academic staff.

Dakogol however, emphasised that the union shall not accept non-commitment from the Ministry of Finance in implementing the agreement and would not hesitate to take necessary action should the union observe any violation of the terms of agreement.

It would be recalled that the union on April 23 declared an indefinite strike following the inability of the government to meet their demands.