UG workers stage protest to retaliate non-payment of salaries

Mar 22, 2014 News

— Union Rep. insist “the university has gotten worse”

“Who must go? VC must go…” was the chant of several University of Guyana (UG) workers as they staged an animated protest outside the Education Lecture Theatre (ELT) yesterday. According to Vice President of the University of Guyana Senior Staff Association (UGSSA), Dr. Mellisa Ifill, the primary reason for the demonstration was the non-payment of salaries. The 600 odd workers of the University should have been paid their salaries on Thursday, she disclosed.

UGSSA Vice President, Dr Mellisa Ifill speaking to media operatives.

Even as the protest action was ongoing outside the ELT building a number of senior officials of the University, including the Vice Chancellor, Professor Jacob Opadeyi, and Deputy Vice Chancellor, Phillip DaSilva, along with Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, and even a World Bank official, among others, were inside engrossed in a ceremony to award research contracts. The contracts were awarded under the University of Guyana Science and Technology Support Project (UGSTSP) which is being facilitated by a US$10 million loan from the World Bank to the Government of Guyana.
The placard-bearing protestors were however, distinctly heard vocalising threats such as “no money, no work,” along with several pointed demands which even prompted the Education Minister, amidst a formal presentation, to comment on the issue of persons resorting to protest action to air their concerns. “It is very easy to do what I saw some people doing outside – hold a placard and behave raucously – it is easy to do that; it is easier to do that than to put on paper how you are going to help develop Guyana, how you are going to change Guyana…it is easier to stand and shout a slogan than to get involved…” asserted the Minister.
Professor Opadeyi in an invited comment following the ceremony said that while he was not in a position to speak to the protest action, he was assured the previous day that the salaries were paid. “I need to talk to my accountant,” the Vice Chancellor told media personnel.
According to an evidently riled-up UGSSA President, Dr. Patsy Francis, she had on Thursday spoken to Professor Opadeyi regarding the payment of wages and salaries at which point she was given all assurance that “the money was in the bank.”
“He promised me very faithfully; I trusted his word…the staff was agitated but I said nothing, this morning no money was in the bank…many of these staff members don’t even have money to return home,” lamented Dr. Francis who led the protest.
“We are very ,very poor people here; even the lecturers are very poor, they cannot pay their mortgage , they cannot do anything…The VC and his senior officers are ‘milking the cow’ and it has got to stop! It must stop! The Government got to do better or let him go,” Dr. Francis insisted.
Mirroring the remarks of the UGSSA President, Dr. Ifill disclosed yesterday too that “today (yesterday) the VC seems clueless about why we have not been paid; I spoke with him this morning and he professed ignorance about why we have not been paid, so immediately this is our concern.”

The workers in protesting mode yesterday.

Although the late payment of salary this month represents the first such development for this year, Dr. Ifill said that the situation is in fact one that has been recurring. “This is not the first time that this has happened and we are saying enough, there must be better governance of the financial situation at this university.”
Last year there were several occasions where staffers of the University were not paid salaries on time; even as much as one week late at times.
According to Dr. Ifill the situation has become particularly disgusting given the fact that some staffers are paid as little as $35,000 per month. “If they don’t get paid on time it causes undue hardship and oftentimes they are the ones who come to us and stage a spontaneous protest…We weren’t planning on protest here today; but of course when people went to the bank this morning and couldn’t provide basic things for their children they called and said we needed to do something,” the UGSSA Vice President disclosed yesterday.
The protest action represented a collaborative move between the UGSSA and the University of Guyana Workers Union (UGWU), headed by Bruce Haynes who was seen on the picket line.
Dr. Ifill disclosed that while the unions have serious qualms about the overall management of the financial situation at the University, it is an even greater dilemma that no remedial intervention has been put in place. “Apart from our salaries, our allowances have not been paid; NIS, GRA, pension contribution those are behind and it is causing undue hardship for our staff…so overall the financial situation at the University is very precarious,” asserted Dr Ifill.
And since from all indications the University continues to be saddled with a cash-strapped operation, Dr. Ifill is convinced that it cannot in anyway satisfy its obligation to staff members.
In fact she did not hesitate to inform that “in my opinion things have gotten worse under Professor Opadeyi. The governance of the University has deteriorated, the financial situation has deteriorated, it has gotten worse…and I suspect if you canvass the staff you will find that they have a similar opinion.”