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The Academic Staff Union of Universities, Lagos State University chapter, on Thursday said it had given the institution’s a seven-day final ultimatum to address its demands.
The Chairman of the union, Dr Adekunle Idris, who made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos, said the ultimatum became effective on Wednesday, April 30 and would expire in May 7.
NAN reports that the union had on March 24, issued a 21- day ultimatum, which expired on April 13 and another 14-days from April 15 that expired on April 29.
The union had contended that the hike in fee had accounted for drop in student enrolment in the institution.
The lecturers also expressed dissatisfaction over the “no vacancy, no promotion” policy of the university and the non-implementation of the 2009 University Miscellaneous Provision Act, already operational in other universities.
In the fresh deadline, Idris told NAN that the lecturers would embark on a comprehensive and indefinite strike if management continued to ignore the union.
Idris said that the fresh ultimatum was another opportunity for the university to meet the union’s demands, and decried the management’s nonchalance toward the issues.
He said the institution’s governing council, which was their employer, had not invited the union for dialogue since the initial trade dispute was declared.
“It was only the Chancellor, Sir Okoya Thomas, that invited us for a meeting towards the end of the initial 21-day ultimatum issued and he promised to bring the issue to a logical conclusion, we are yet to hear from him.
“The parents’ forum also met the union on April 29 and promised to discuss with the government not to allow the issue result into a strike,” he said.
Idris said the union had been considerate enough to narrow down its 20 demands into three, “yet the management finds it impossible to meet them”.
He said that the union declared the trade dispute to fulfil all the regulations of the Nigeria Labour Congress by giving the grace for dialogue before opting for strike.
According to him, it is almost certain that the union will embark on strike, judging by the levity with which the management, governing council and state government are handling the issue
The Vice Chancellor, Prof. John Obafunwa, had on April 15 appealed to the lecturers not to down tools because the institution was making effort to meet their demands.
Obafunwa explained that only three out of the 20 demands were yet to be met, and urged them to embrace dialogue because strike would only do more harm to the image of the institution.
