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No resolution could result in start of industrial action at UG
Vice Chancellor (VC) of the University of Guyana (UG), Professor Jacob Opadeyi, would only say, “I don’t know if there is any resolution” when
University of Guyana
contacted yesterday to comment on threats leveled by the University Unions in the wake of collapsed salary negotiations.
Failure to realize a resolution could in fact result in full-fledged industrial action that is likely to commence today, if the Unions are to stick to their threat.
The unions – the University of Guyana Senior Staff Association (UGSSA) and the University of Guyana Workers Union (UGWU) – in a strongly worded statement, last week, said, “We must be prepared to take other drastic steps, including shutting the University down if necessary.”
The Unions are advocating for a hike in wages and salaries and improvement of other benefits.
But according to the Unions in a joint statement issued yesterday, the Vice Chancellor’s response to the union’s demands on Tuesday, is “woefully inadequate, and this takes matters no closer to a solution. It has therefore been rejected.”
The Unions added that contrary to the statement attributed to Professor Opadeyi to an online publication, “NO concrete salaries and benefits proposal to any category of worker was offered by the Vice Chancellor in response to their demand for a 60 per cent salary increase payable from March 2015.”
It was noted that as it relates to salary increases, “the VC makes in his letter absolutely no offer of any percentage.” He merely states that “negotiation has to wait until the University Administration has completed its work on how the increase will be funded”.
For the VC to create an impression that an increase is somewhere around the corner is a deliberate attempt to deceive. “We repeat: the VC has made no offer to pay any increase to UG workers. There is absolutely no mention of these issues in the VC’s written reply,” added the joint statement.
It was also pointed out that the Vice Chancellor has also failed to make an offer on duty free concessions and increased allowances.
Further still, it was noted that there has been no withdrawal of the UG Administration’s workload policy from Council although a consultation schedule was proposed, “which we accept, under the condition that the policy would not be approved by the University Council prior to the conclusion of consultations and the revision of the document.”
The Unions said that they will remain united in their approach to salaries and benefits’ negotiations and reject the efforts by the Administration to divide workers by offering to negotiate separately with the UGWU but not the UGSSA.
“Indeed, it would be remiss of us if we do not frankly admit that these and other statements by the VC only widen the gulf of distrust between university staff and the VC,” added the statement.
“On our demand for the withdrawal of the workload policy, we note that the university has agreed that the document must first benefit from consultations before approval.”
A schedule of meetings has been proposed and according to the Unions the intent is to ensure that the process is not a perfunctory and meaningless one.
But despite the Vice Chancellor’s stated optimism that his response will prevent industrial action, Union members have agreed that “failing a positive response to our demands and return immediately to the bargaining table with both the UGSSA and the UGWU, the staff must take some form of industrial action to register our dissatisfaction and frustration.”
Staff, students and the general public are therefore advised that barring further communication from the Vice-Chancellor to accede to the demands of the Unions by 16:00 hours (4pm) today, industrial action will be taken to delay the start of the new semester.
The UGSSA and UGWU have declared that they together “stand ready as always to engage and conclude negotiations, with the Administration, that are serious and are based on trust and mutual respect.”
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