Academic staff accuse management of withholding their pay, while the university says salary processing has been stalled by the ongoing non-academic staff strike

Lecturers at the Lagos State University of Science and Technology have demanded an explanation for the delay in paying their August salaries, as the institution’s management attributed the situation to an ongoing strike by non-academic workers responsible for processing payroll.

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The lecturers, who spoke anonymously on Friday, August 28, 2026, accused the university management of deliberately withholding their salaries and alleged that Vice-Chancellor Professor Olumuyiwa Odusanya had taken the decision without consulting the Lagos State Government.

The LASUSTECH August salaries dispute comes as the university’s non-academic staff have spent about three weeks on industrial action.

The lecturers said their counterparts at Lagos State University and Lagos State University of Education had already received their August salaries despite similar industrial action by non-academic unions at those institutions.

One of the aggrieved lecturers said the academic staff at LASUSTECH were not participating in the strike and should therefore not have been affected by the delay.

“The VC has taken a unilateral decision to withhold workers’ salary without recourse to the Lagos State Government,” the lecturer alleged.

“LASG has not issued any directive to the VC to withhold workers’ salary.”

The allegation was rejected by the university management.

LASUSTECH Director of Information, Lanre Kuye, said the delay was not a decision by the Vice-Chancellor to withhold salaries but a consequence of the absence of staff needed to prepare the payroll.

“It is only the August salary that has not been paid. The reason being that nobody prepared it,” Kuye said.

He explained that the salary preparation process was handled by members of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, both of which were participating in the industrial action.

“The state government has been doing well for us but nobody has prepared the salary,” he said.

Kuye maintained that the university was ready to process the salaries once the striking workers resumed.

“Personally, I want them to suspend the strike to come and prepare the salary,” he said.

He also dismissed the allegation that the Vice-Chancellor had personally ordered the withholding of the lecturers’ pay.

“It is not true that the Vice-Chancellor is withholding their salaries. It would be prepared immediately if they suspend the strike,” Kuye said.

The dispute has added another layer to the labour tensions currently affecting Lagos State-owned universities.

ASUU branches at LASU, LASUED and LASUSTECH recently issued 14-day ultimatums over the non-implementation of provisions of the 2025 Federal Government-ASUU agreement, including the revised salary template, the Consolidated Academic Tools Allowance and outstanding financial obligations.

The latest salary dispute at LASUSTECH is separate from those demands, but the two developments have placed renewed attention on staff welfare and industrial relations across the state’s university system.

For academic staff at LASUSTECH, the immediate concern is the unpaid August salary and the uncertainty over when the money will be processed.

Management, meanwhile, insists that the delay is administrative rather than punitive and says payment can proceed once the workers responsible for preparing the payroll return to duty.

The conflicting accounts have left the issue unresolved, with lecturers seeking clarity from the university and management pointing to the continuing strike as the central obstacle.

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Until the payroll process resumes, the affected academic staff will have to wait for a resolution to what has become a frustrating dispute at the institution.