Lecturers at the Lagos State University of Science and Technology have protested the non-payment of their August salaries, demanding an explanation from the institution’s management.
The lecturers, who spoke anonymously, alleged that the university’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Olumuyiwa Odusanya, had decided to withhold their salaries without consulting the Lagos State Government.
They argued that the development was unfair, particularly because workers at other state-owned universities had reportedly received their August pay despite ongoing industrial action by some non-academic staff.
One of the affected lecturers said, “The VC has taken a unilateral decision to withhold workers’ salary without recourse to the Lagos State Government.”
The lecturer added that the academic staff of LASUSTECH were not participating in the strike and therefore should not be affected by the industrial action.
“Meanwhile, the LASUSTECH academic staff are not on strike, but they have refused to pay us. LASG has not issued any directive to the VC to withhold workers’ salary,” the lecturer said.
The dispute comes amid an ongoing strike by members of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities at the institution.
However, the university management rejected the allegation that the Vice-Chancellor deliberately withheld the lecturers’ salaries.
The Director of Information, Lanre Kuye, explained that the August payroll had not been prepared because the staff responsible for processing it were among those participating in the strike.
“It is only the August salary that has not been paid. The reason being that nobody prepared it. The state government has been doing well for us but nobody has prepared the salary,” Kuye said.
He explained that the salaries were normally processed by members of NASU and SSANU, adding that the Vice-Chancellor lacked the authority to personally prepare the payroll.
Kuye said the salary would be processed once the striking workers returned to their duties.
“Personally, I want them to suspend the strike to come and prepare the salary,” he added.
The management therefore maintained that the delay was a consequence of the industrial action and not a deliberate decision by the Vice-Chancellor to withhold workers’ entitlements.
