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A few days after the Ondo State Government announced that it had reabsorbed the sacked 59 workers of the Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, into the state civil service, the affected workers, on Tuesday, rejected the government gesture.
The 59 workers, who were teachers at the Rufus Giwa Polytechnic Staff Primary and Secondary School, were sacked on the grounds that the management had no financial capacity to run the schools any longer and planned to privatise them.
The Chairman of the Governing Council of the institution had last week, during a meeting with the representatives of the institution’s chapter of the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Polytechnics, disclosed that Governor Rotimi Akeredolu had ordered that the disengaged workers be reabsorbed into the civil service.
But the affected workers, in a letter to the governor, rejected the government’s plan.
The letter sent to the governor, through their lawyer, Mr Banjo Ayenakin, read, “While our clients appreciate the gesture and interest of the Ondo State governor, the planned redeployment or transfer of service is clearly unacceptable to our clients.
“To put the record straight, our clients were employed by RUGIPOLY at different times; they had their appointments regularised and confirmed by the governing council of the institution. Our clients were subsequently promoted by virtue of their commitment, industry and hard work to the institution.
“It was a rude shock when our clients were given mass retrenchment or disengagement under the guise that the schools were not yielding enough revenue and that the management intended to privatise the institution.”
It added, “The offer to redeploy or transfer our clients to the Ondo State Teaching Service Commission is contrary to the conditions of appointment of our client and the said redeployment is a ploy to demote our clients and subject them to psychological trauma.
“It must be noted that the conditions of employment of our clients; among which are grade level and year of retirement in the two services are different. While the non-teaching staff of RUGIPOLY retires at age 65; those of the teaching service commission retire at 60.”
Source: PUNCH.
