The Joint Union of Research Institutes and Associated Institutions of the Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria on Wednesday, in Ibadan, commenced an indefinite strike to press home its demands from the management of the institute after a peaceful protest at the institute’s premises.

Expressing the union’s grievances against the management of the institute, the spokesperson of the union, Mr Bobadoye Ayodotun, while adressing newsmen at the institute, averred that the issue of pension scheme which was a double deduction, was a major factor  which led to the protest, adding that the Federal Government was expected to pay 7.5 per cent, while workers would pay 7.5 per cent, but they were made to pay 15 percent, which was not in line with stipulated guidelines.

Ayodotun said that to avert crisis, the union met with the management  many times to address the issue, but could not reach a logical conclusion, as it was said that the union was not satisfied with the way the institute management was handling the matter.

He said that it was painful that a junior officer could pay more pension than a management staff in such a federal institute, adding the union had met with the relevant Federal Government authorities and other stakeholders saddled with the responsibility of overseeing the institute, as this was not done in other institutes.

The union also, in its agitation, said that tenure of the executive director of the institute, Professor Solomon Olufunmilayo Badejo, had expired, as he was only entitiled to a single term of five years. The union said that as a way of averting crisis, Professor Badejo was advised to handover affairs of the institute to relevant authorities.

However, the management of the institute said that issue relating to the tenure of the executive director was in the court.

It said that the institute used PENCOM in its pension scheme and that when the issue of double deduction was raised, it constituted a committee in which union members were involved and the committee found out that there was nothing wrong with the pension scheme, adding that there was nothing called double deduction.

It was also gathered that management told the union members that if they were not satisfied with the committee’s reports, they could take the case to the supervising federal Ministry of Environment.

As a result, the management wrote the supervising Federal Ministry of Environment, which later invited PENCOM, which equally wrote a letter to the institute that the action taken on the pension scheme was in order, while the management later called a meeting with all heads of departments of the institute and the letter given by the PENCOM was tendered where the management told the HODs to go to their different departments and educate other members of staff.

It was gathered that a congress was constituted after the HODs addressed workers in their various departments to counter the move of the management, as they did not support the move which led to their moving from one department to another to woo members by deliberately destroying government’s property and disturbing the peaceful atmosphere of the institute.

However, as a result of the congress held, those involved were said to have been given queries while security agents were invited to curtail breakdown of law.

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