AFTER five weeks of industrial unrest, during which its doors were closed to more than 5000 students, the University of Guyana (UG) is likely to reopen its doors today, should negotiations between Vice-Chancellor, Professor Jacob Opadeyi and the Staff Unions prove fruitful.President of the UG Workers Union, Mr Bruce Haynes disclosed Friday that there was still some “fine tuning” to be done to the terms of resumption.

Initially, a meeting was held on Friday among the combined unions, where a collective decision was made before two representatives met with the Vice-Chancellor.
A 10% interim increase in salary was agreed upon by the unions, which were initially seeking to have a 60% increase across the board. The question of who would be funding the 10% increase had arisen, but was soon resolved, Haynes said.

He further related that the fine-tuning of the terms would entail further discussions among the unions, which should put them in a position to seal a deal by the end of the day Friday with the Vice-Chancellor.

It was against this backdrop that Haynes expressed optimism in articulating the view that, should the dialogue scheduled for Friday be fruitful on both counts, the doors of Guyana’s premier tertiary institution are likely to re-open today.

The five-week delay in resumption had been fuelled by the University’s administration’s failure to address issues which had arisen before the institution’s doors were to be opened. Among contentious issues were the imposition of a work-load policy on the staff; failure to increase salaries by 60 per cent; and failure to recognize the UG Senior Staff Association (UGSSA) as an official body.

The chain of events resulted in staff taking a definitive stance to have their concerns addressed by the administration.
A series of collapsed negotiations followed not too long after, as the University remained in a state of uncertainty.

The UG Students Society (UGSS) had also seized the opportunity to have its demands placed before the administration. Those demands included, inter alia, better classroom facilities; enhanced washroom facilities; routine cleaning of the compound; and infrastructural development.
Those demands were made in response to an additional G$350M+ being paid by students to the University as part of a ‘Facility fee’, which is mandatory.