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‘Pay us from the Gov’t subvention’ – UG staff unions insist
“The Vice Chancellor is telling us that there was a shortfall in the subventions approved by the
President of UGSSA,
Dr. Jewel Thomas
Government, for the University of Guyana. He is saying that in that gap that exists, are the salaries for UG workers. That is what is being told to us,” Dr. Jewel Thomas, President of the University of Guyana Senior Staff Association told Kaieteur News yesterday.
She said that this is the argument being used by the University of Guyana Administration, as it relates to increased tuition fees.
“We do not back that argument at all. We do not need to be put against the students…We are not going to say that students have to pay an increased tuition in order for us to get proper pay,” Dr. Thomas asserted.
She is of the firm belief that decent salary increases for UG staff can be facilitated with the very subvention approved by the government.
“You (the UG administration) can look after us from what the government has allocated, and if you want an increase of the tuition fees, say clearly what are the other things that you want to have funded,” Dr. Thomas argued.
She expressed dissatisfaction over the fact that the UGSS, along with the University of Guyana Workers’ Union (UGWU) was not consulted during the preparation of UG’s original 2017 budget presented to the Ministry of Finance.
Dr. Thomas rubbished recent arguments put forth by Vice Chancellor, Professor Ivelaw Griffith, where he said that he needs to have the budget approved before he can enter into salary negotiations with staffers of the University.
“This demonstrates that he, perhaps, does not understand what is involved in the process. If Council approves a budget with a certain percentage for staff, there is no truly meaningful negotiation thereafter. The negotiation can only occur while the budget is still under revision, and priorities are being considered,” a statement issued last evening by the Union said.
Dr. Thomas explained that the indications of disrespect shown to the unions are the reasons for employees moving to take stern industrial action.
“…So that staff interests can be included in the document that is taken to the Council meeting on Thursday 30th March,” the statement added.
The University of Guyana’s Turkeyen, East Coast Demerara Campus.
At previous a meeting last month with Professor Griffith, Dr. Thomas said that the Union representatives were told that the Vice Chancellor did not wish to negotiate at that stage because he would not be able to make a substantial offer to staff
“The Unions met with the staff, and it was the staff who declared that they would be interested in any offer that the administration wished to make – and said that they wished to have negotiations begin immediately,” the press release said.
Dr. Thomas and her colleagues are adamant that the requests for negotiations and eventual salary increases are not unreasonable.
“The administration must not only speak of the ‘benefits’ staff get, but must also recognise the millions of dollars staff return to UG by using and purchasing from their own pockets such things as teaching materials and other resources,” the Unions highlighted.
The Unions went further to respond to a recent statement issued statement by administration of the University of Guyana, in relation to the regularization of some short term contract workers at the institution.
“They have always been employed by the University. Their regularization and many of the ‘benefits’ alluded to in the press release represent no more than the administration doing what it ought to. It is puzzling that the administration seems to expect praise for doing no more than what is charged with doing,” the union disputed.
The statement went further to assert that “the recent conduct of the administration, its failure to engage the unions when the budget was being prepared, its great reluctance to share agendas for meetings/events, the attempt to pit staff against students, and most dangerous of all, the absolute refusal to allow persons space to speak does not bode well for unity or good industrial relations at the University of Guyana.”
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