Workers represented by the University of Guyana Workers’ Union (UGWU) yesterday staged a sit-in over the non-payment of a 5% salary hike and argued that the “bureaucracy” within the Finance Ministry was preventing them from getting what they deserved. However, a senior official at the Finance Ministry said the entity cannot be blamed since the matter at hand is out of its jurisdiction.
The protesting workers number about 200 and include administrative as well as support staff. The workers and union leaders yesterday staged a picketing exercise at the Turkeyen campus. The leaders of the union have vowed to continue the industrial action until their demands are met.
Chairman of the union, Bruce Haynes said the UG staffers were fed up of being treated like “distant cousins” and wanted to be treated like “a first child.” He said last year, when the President promised a retroactive pay hike for public servants, the university’s workers did not receive the full amount owed to them. He said following deliberations with the university’s administration, the outstanding money to be paid to workers was included in this year’s university budget, which was subsequently approved by the University Council. According to Haynes, the projected figure would have brought the UG staffers on par with other public service workers who are already receiving their 5% increase.
Haynes explained that on Monday, Vice Chancellor of the university, Professor Lawrence Carrington, was scheduled to meet the budget director in the Finance Ministry to discuss the estimates, but the meeting was called off owing to the unavailability of the official.
According to Haynes, the union had communicated to the Vice Chancellor that once the outcome of Monday’s meeting was not favourable, the workers would engage in industrial action.
The union chairman said that the university was run primarily on subventions from the government and that any increase would have to come from the administration. He said that the option was to increase the tuition fees but that this could not be pursued right now.
Meanwhile, a senior official in the Finance Ministry told Stabroek News that the budget director and the Finance Ministry were being erroneously blamed, since the issue needed to be dealt with by the Ministry of Education, which has direct responsibility for matters related to the university. The official, who requested anonymity, also said the matter of wages and salaries could only be dealt with by the Finance Ministry, if the Ministry of Education took the matter to the Finance Ministry. The matter would then be discussed at a meeting involving senior officials from the university, the Education Ministry and the Finance Ministry, the official disclosed.
The official emphasised that the budget director had no authority to intervene in the matter and pointed out that Monday’s meeting with the budget director was not scheduled to address the issue of wages and salaries.
Meanwhile, the University of Guyana, in a press release issued last evening, said it is “pursuing a new date for a meeting with the Ministry of Finance and will bring the industrial action to the attention of the Ministry of Labour.” The university said its administration “has acted in good faith in all matters related to the budget submissions and to the attempts to have conclusive discussions with the Ministry of Finance.” Efforts to contact Education Minister Shaik Baksh yesterday proved futile.
According to the release, UG included in its budget estimates for 2009/2010 a 5% increase in salary for its employees with effect from August of this year. UG stated that it cannot pay increased salaries without adequate allocation in the National Budget. The university emphasised that it remained committed to the increase once funding is provided.
Meanwhile, the University of Guyana Students’ Society (UGSS) said that while it was not formally asked to support the industrial action by the UGWU, its members stood “in solidar0ity with the workers’ right to proceed on industrial action as if they feel aggrieved that their rights are being vitiated.”
The UGSS, however, expressed concern at the timing of the union’s industrial action since some students are preparing for mid-semester exams while others are preparing for final examinations. “The student population will be adversely affected, since they will not be able to fully access the complement of facilities being offered by the university administration,” the UGSS said.
Recently elected President of the UGSS Sherod Duncan told this newspaper that the UGSS was following the matter closely. He said it was suggested that if the government did not supply the funds, the alternative was to increase tuition at the institution. This, he said, was an action that the UGSS was totally against.
Duncan also noted that there were several issues affecting the lives of students and staffers on the campus and said that the UGSS intends to address these issues.
