LASPOTECH CONTISS 15 Migration: Matters Arising

By Jide Afolabi

Disagreements between employers and employees are inevitable especially when it concerns governments and its workers. Some trade disputes have been taken to courts – industrial and conventional courts by parties in the dispute and so, the current disputes between the Lagos State Polytechnic, LASPOTECH, and its owner, Lagos State Government is not new. The dispute preceded the current governor Akinwumni Ambode’s administration and current Rector of the Polytechnic, Mr. Samuel Sogunro.

It began in 2013 when the National Board for Technical Education, NBTE, released a new salary structure and condition of service tagged Consolidate Tertiary Institutions’ “CONTISS 15 MIGRATION”.

The three affected unions namely; Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Polytechnics, SSANIP, and the Non-Academic Staff Union, NASU, did not push for immediate implementation of the scheme for some obvious and cogent reasons. The unions respected the then Rector, Dr. Abioye Lawal who was regarded as a very honest and transparent manager of the institution.

Lawal’s transparent attitude was shown in his uncommon and rare act of opening the institution’s accounts to the unions. He craved the indulgence of the unions to understand the situation and that as much as he would have loved to effect the new scheme, the institution does not have the financial capacity to do so due to paucity of fund. At the time, LASPOTECH’s monthly subvention was 153 million naira while the Polytechnic’s salary and overhead cost estimated at 255 million naira.

The Rector however, promised to implement the new scheme of “CONTISS 15 Migration” if the subvention is increased by additional 19 million naira. Based on this understanding, the unions deployed its skills and veritable tools of engagement, negotiation and lobbying of the Lagos State House of Assembly to increase subvention for the Polytechnic. The union’s engagement and lobbying of the Lagos State House of Assembly paid off when the state eventually granted and effected the institution’s monthly subvention increase.

In 2016, Lagos State Government increased the Polytechnics monthly subvention to 210 million naira. The increase as expected raised the unions’ agitation for the implementation of “CONTISS 15 Migration”. Unfortunately, the legitimate agitation has resulted in unnecessary, needless and avoidable series of industrial disputes.

To curb the unions struggle, the management of the institution in collaboration with the state government proceeded to the National Industrial Court, NIC, sitting in Lagos with a view to stop the unions from engaging in further strikes and to stop further request for claims of migration arrears which has run into 83 months before the implementation of the migration salary scheme in 2016.

Specifically, the management and state government prayed the Court, firstly, “That the migration was illegal, and that the unions only forced them to its implementation in October, 2016” and secondly, “That the unions did not have any arrears to claim because the scheme was not known to the government”.

At this juncture, the ground for the long legal battle began in earnest. While the case commenced in 2017, the state government via the governing council and through the connivance of the management of the institution have embarked on victimisation of the members of these unions especially, their leaders.

When the Court sat on the matter recently, the government Counsel filed a discountenance application to withdraw the case against the staff unions. Meanwhile, the staff unions have earlier filed necessary defence and counter claims. The unions Counsel had also joined Lagos State Polytechnic as one of the claimants in the case. For apparent fear of loss, the government Counsel could not move motion for discountenance of the case in view of the unions counter claims. The Court however granted the request of the state Counsel to either move his application for discountenance of the case and/or file his objections against the unions counter claims at the next date. The Court later adjourned to 29 October, 2018.

It is really unfortunate that in the 21st Century Nigeria, a state of Lagos stature despite the Labour Act, 2004; Trade Disputes Act, 2004; Trade Union Amended Act, 2005 and several international labour instruments that Nigeria is a signatory to, which negates victimisation of unionists on the basis of legitimate actions or agitations, the state government is still resulting to self-help through victimisations of the staff of the Polytechnic especially, unionists through de-migration (reversal of migration) and demotion of staff especially, leaders of the struggle among others.

The frantic efforts by the government for discountenance of the case from the Court is a calculated attempt to enjoy absolute freedom without any legal resistance to deal with staff members and unionists in particular, which the unions, through their Counsels quickly filed a counter claim to stalk moves by the government and LASPOTECH management.

If Governor Ambode has the interest of the students’ of the Lagos State Polytechnic, LASPOTECH, at heart and want to forestall any activity capable of impeding the academic continuity for students’, he must urgently wade-in into the impasse and resolve it before it degenerates further. He must as a matter of urgency and priority, halt the ongoing victimisation of the staff of the institution and engage their leaders in meaningful dialogue with a view to resolve the impasse and move the Polytechnic to enviable heights.