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No fewer than 100 staff of Bowen University, Iwo, Osun State have been laid off from the institution.
MERIDIAN SPY gathered the sacked staff, both academic and non-academic, received their letters of disengagement through email late on Tuesday.
A source who confirmed the development in the institution, said the decision was due to COVID-19 induced economic crisis in the country, adding that the situation is currently generating anxiety, as some staffers were threatening to protest the action.
“How can the university-owned by a church just wake up and lay off such number of staff at this time? Even the government at all levels are struggling to keep their staff and pay them,” the source said.
But, the Public Relation Officer of Bowen University, Mr Toba Adaramola confirmed that about 8-10% of the institution’s staff were sacked due to change in the institution’s way of running its activities.
Adaramola said the decision to reduce workforce had been on for sometimes and was necessary to sustain the university, “since it is not a public institution that can rely on any subvention apart from the fees it charged its students”.
“The decision affected those in academics and non-academic staff,” he said.
“In August 2018, it was discovered that the university is heading toward inflection point and the management deliberated on the reasons for the inflection.
“It was discovered that change of culture was part of the problem. Hence we embraced technology and so many staffers were no longer needed to perform certain duties.
“Although it is a painful decision but one that is necessary to sustain the university since it is not public institution that can rely on any subvention apart from the fees it charged its students.”
The university’s PRO however hinted that the school has taken necessary measures to cater for all the affected members of staff to have a soft landing and ensure that they were not just relieved of their duty without adequate compensation.
