Polytechnics Resolve to Strike
The Milton Margai College of Education and Technology (MMCET) the Northern Polytechnic, the Eastern Polytechnic, the Freetown Teachers College and the Port Loko Teachers College yesterday resolved to go on a sit-down strike effective next Monday, June 17.
The polytechnics and training colleges took the resolution during a meeting of the National Polytechnic and Teachers Training College Senior Staff Association (NAPTTSSA) held at the Freetown Teachers College in Jui.
The NAPTTSSA executive members resolved to take the industrial action as a way of registering their grievances over the undeniable and unpleasant fact that for the past years, there has been no stipulated, precise, agreed, documented and signed conditions of service for polytechnics and teacher training colleges.
They recalled that in 2009, the college councils, principals, the Tertiary Education Committee (TEC) the Parliamentary Oversight Committee on Education, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, MEST, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, NAPTTSSA and other stakeholders developed a working document titled, 2011 Revised and Harmonized Conditions of Service for Polytechnics in Sierra Leone but that the polytechnics were not involved in the finalization of the document which deals with their welfare.
NAPTTSSA executive members also expressed dissatisfaction over the fact that since the document was developed in 2009 it has never been signed and effected and that several unacceptable changes have been made on it, pointing out that the salary scale has been expunged from the document which, they said, has no code of conduct attached to it.
The NAPTTSSA executive members also condemned categorically the pegging of the ex-gratia payment to staff who serve for twenty years, further disagreeing with the proposal that the document takes effect from the day it will be signed. Already, they went on, the authorities have jumped the May 31 deadline they set for the signing of the document, a situation which, they said, has not gone down well with them.
The NAPTTSSA executives demanded the re-attachment of the expunged salary scale to the 2011 working document and called for their total involvement in the finalization of the document and further demanded that the ex-gratia payment condition be revisited to benefit staff who serve from ten to twenty years.
They vowed not to call off the strike if their demands and concerns are not addressed.
By Joseph Milton Lebbie
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