Negotiations on the wages, salaries and working conditions of all University of Guyana (UG) employees will commence on Tuesday, representatives of the tertiary institution said yesterday.
According to a press release, this decision was made during a union meeting held last Thursday at the Turkeyen Campus by President of the UG Senior Staff Association (UGSSA) Dr Patsy Francis and UG Workers Union (UGWU) Bruce Haynes. Tuesday’s meeting will be between the UGSSA, UGWU and the University of Guyana’s negotiation team.
According to the press release, last Thursday’s meeting between union leaders and staff had been called to determine what steps ought to be taken in the light of the failure of the administration to respond to the UGSSA and UGWU’s requests for meetings with the negotiating team and the senior administrative group.
At the meeting, union leaders advised staff that the university’s administration had been deliberately violating the Resumption of Duties Agreement that had been signed between the unions and the administration that allowed for the cessation of industrial action at the university in late February, the release said.
It was noted that among other things, the agreement provided for tripartite talks between the unions and the administration initially on a monthly basis then on a mutually agreed schedule to discuss the conditions on campus and for the university to convene a meeting with the negotiation team one month after submission of unions’ memorandum of demands.
With respect to the tripartite talks, the release said, the two union leaders “highlighted the frustrations experienced” by the unions to schedule meetings with the administration to address the still deplorable conditions on campus. Included in these are the release of raw sewage into open drains; the poor work done by Ministry of Education contractors on university buildings; grossly inadequate classroom space; the lack of critical materials such as ink, paper and toner that would allow faculties and departments to function effectively; the distressing state of university finances and repeated failure to pay workers on time and remit contributions to various agencies in a timely manner and the not inconsiderable numbers of courses that have not yet started because lecturers have not yet received contracts, six weeks after the commencement of the semester.
The release said that in relation to the negotiation meeting the duo noted that two meetings had been previously scheduled with the UG negotiation team in June following the submission of the unions’ Memo of Demands in May. However, council members failed to attend on both occasions and the meetings had to be aborted, the release said before stating that Dr Francis revealed that “in response to our stated intention to resume industrial action in light of these breaches, a meeting with the university negotiating team was hastily arranged to forestall the resumption of industrial action by staff.” Following discussions, union members present at last Thursday’s meeting agreed that notwithstanding the dissatisfaction with the overall state of the university, “the unions would not call for an immediate resumption of industrial action once the initial negotiation meeting proceeds satisfactorily.”
The unions called on the administration to fulfil all the terms of the Resumption of Duties Agreement.
“We call on the administration to come clean and publicly admit the devastating financial crisis faced by the UG. We call on all political and civic stakeholders to conduct an urgent national inquiry into the state of the university and engage with university staff to ensure that the university is transformed into a viable institution that facilitates the development of Guyanese youths and our nation Guyana,” the release said.
