The impending start of the new semester at the Uni-versity of Guyana (UG) may be put off indefinitely as both the UG Senior Staff Association (UGSSA) and the UG Workers’ Union (UGWU) are threatening industrial action if their demands over wage negotiations are not met.
Both bodies met yesterday afternoon in an emergency meeting to discuss a way forward following last week’s collapse of negotiations between the unions and the UG administration after years of negotiations.
Throngs of the institution’s staff members turned out at UG’s Turkeyen Campus to voice their concerns and a course of action was decided upon after hours of consultation.
This course of action will see a last-ditch attempt to negotiate with the administration and will see the proposition of key demands. The unions’ main demand is a 60% salary increase, payable by February month-end. Further, it was decided that if the demands are not met within a week, the staff will resort to industrial action.
However, some in attendance expressed concern at the effectiveness of industrial action and stated that there is usually an issue with the academic staff co-operating in any action.
Nonetheless, the bodies are maintaining that they will resort to industrial action if necessary and if there is any dissent they will deal with it in due time.
Dr Mellissa Ifill, Vice Chairman of the UGSSA, explained that a number of proposals had been put forward by the unions. The first of these proposals had been the 60% salary increase, immediately followed by increases over three years in an attempt to be on par with other universities in the region. Further, a 200% increase in travelling allowance was proposed along with the restoration of duty-free concessions, increased book and material allowances, annual research grants, and an improved medical scheme.
Ifill added that the administration had no excuse for not raising salaries after netting $274 million extra from increased tuition fees. She also said the administration’s new workload policy aims to make staff worker longer and harder for less.
Along with industrial action, the unions are threatening legal action over the implementation of the workload policy, which will see academic staff teaching four courses per semester. This legal action could see an injunction against the administration over the workload policy.
According to Ifill, academic staff contracts state that any changes in the regulations governing the conditions of their service to the university could only be made following consultations with the UGSSA along with the recommendation of the Finance and General Purposes Commit-tee. This must also be coupled with the approval of the Council, Ifill said.
She emphasised that at no time was the UGSSA consulted about the workload policy. She noted that the legal route was decided upon following legal consultations, which showed that the administration had breached contracts and regulations.
Furthermore, she maintained that the university’s students will be the ones who ultimately suffer if issues between the administration and its staff are not resolved soon.
United front
Despite pressures by the administration to separate the UGSSA and the UGWU, the bodies are maintaining that they will put forth a united front and tackle negotiations.
During her presentation, Ifill stated that the UG administration had put forward a proposal to bargain separately with the unions. She added that it was a tactic to “divide and rule” the unions.
Also during yesterday’s meeting the idea of forming a coalition between the two bodies was flirted with.
Patsy Francis, former president of the UGSSA, also emphasised the need for a united front and said division would benefit no one. “UGWU and UGSSA were one union…and at that time we had full strength; there was a division which was made at a particular point in time when another carrot was dangled before us…and look where we are today,” Francis pointed out. “We are a small body of people…we got to pull together,” she added.
“Purely on the basis of numbers, let us build the largest number of members. That means one union…and within that one union we can decide to have select committees,” one member suggested.
However, a decision was finally made to remain separate but work closely together.
Ifill went on to urge each member to play their part and make individual contributions to add to collective problem-solving.
During the meeting, an email was received from the university’s personnel department, indicating that there will be a meeting today to discuss the workload policy with the academic staff. However, it was decided by the unions that the meeting will be boycotted by both of them.
VC’s removal
Meanwhile, the university’s staff also unanimously agreed yesterday that Vice-Chancellor (VC) Jacob Opadeyi must be removed. Several members maintained that the VC did not have the university’s best interest at heart and had no respect for staffers.
Some persons also said that Opadeyi is involved in several aspects of university administration.
“He is the chairperson of council and we do not have a Chancellor or a Pro-Chancellor. Do you see our problem? Whenever anything goes to council, he is the chairman,” Francis said. She continued, “I don’t know what we will do but we need to have at least a Pro-Chancellor. We need to have somebody between the VC and the rest. He can’t be chief cook and bottle washer.”
Furthermore, members believe that Opadeyi has no intention of respecting and treating his staff fairly and decently unless forced to do so. According to Ifill, the Vice-Chancellor had indicated that there were too many part-time staffers. Opadeyi indicated that he would like to eliminate the cost of hiring so many persons on a part-time basis, she added.
The emergency meeting came days after UGSSA and UGWU warned of a possible shutdown of UG after salary talks collapsed last Thursday.
Since 2012, wage negotiations between the academic staff and the administration had been ongoing, leading to days of strike by lecturers and students alike before terms for resumption were brokered.
