Staff of Rivers State college of health science to embark on indefinite strike

Lorine Emenike

The joint council union of Rivers State college of health science and technology has given an ultimatum to the state house of assembly for the immediate passage of the Bill which upgraded the college to a polytechnic or they will embark on an indefinite strike.

The joint council union has already issued a 21-days warning strike which elapses on the 8th of May.

The Bill which went through a public hearing in October 2018 is yet to be passed into law by the state House of Assembly.

At a joint council union meeting in the college, the Unions also called for the reconstitution of the governing council of the institution, and for the state government to also include the institution as a tertiary institution in the state with same salary scheme as obtained by other polytechnics in the state.

Comrade Promise Igoma, the college chairman of Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), also called on the state government to upgrade the college infrastructures.

The college ASUP chairman frowned at the delay of the passage of Bill by the state house of assembly especially as the eight assembly will be dissolved in the Month of May to give way to another regime.

On his part, Comrade Emmanuel Nwala, the college chairman of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Polytechnics (SSANIP), stressed that the college needs a governing council to direct its affairs.

Continuing, he said that staff of the institution should be paid the same salary as it is being paid to their counterparts in the captain Elechi Amadi Polytechnic, Port Harcourt and Ken Saro Wiwa Polytechnic, Bori.

Also, the college union vice chairman of SSANIP, comrade Raymond Kaibe said that the union is agitated over the absence of a governing council.

In their speech, both the chairman of the Non-Academic Staff Union of the institution, comrade Stephen Edwin and the college ASUP secretary, comrade Nwibana Barisuka called for the implementation of the Consolidated Tertiary Institutions salary structure to staff of the college.