– Council to meet and negotiate

THE University of Guyana Workers Union (UGWU) and University of Guyana Senior Staff Association (UGSSA) held a press conference on Friday morning to announce that they have rejected the three and four per cent increase approved by the University’s Vice-Chancellor, Ivelaw Griffith; and they are currently awaiting a negotiation meeting with the council.

Last week the Finance and General Purposes Committee of UG unanimously approved a last-minute request by the UG’s administration and imposed a three per cent salary increase for UA (academic) staff, and four percent increase in salary for UB (support) staff, retroactive to January 1st, 2018, which Griffith said is all the university can afford at this time.

“It is completely contrary to the principles of labour relations to impose an increase where trade unions exist and negotiations are possible. The percentage named are also insulting to the staff,” said the president of the UGSSA, Jewel Thomas.

Moreover, she said, the university’s unions have been trying to negotiate wages and salaries with the university’s administration since January of this year. The first negotiations meeting with the administration was held on February 28th. Since then, they have been unable to agree on an agenda.

Thomas said that they wished to negotiate Salaries for 2018, travelling allowances, book allowances, medical science, and gratuity for persons not on the pension scheme, and pensions for UB staff.

“We indicated that we were not prepared to negotiate items 1-5 until the University’s Divisions had been transformed into Human Resources Department. The Finance and General Purposes Committee of Council had laid out a plan for this transformation since 2016, and we had been told in early 2017 that the plan should be implemented by 2018. One of the first items that had to be implemented was the hiring of a human resources director. We still do not have a human resources director,” she said.

She opined that there was also some discussion about the persons who would comprise the administration’s small negotiating team. They objected to two persons, but when the administration insisted on their presence, they were prepared to go ahead while noting the objections.

“The administration, however, was not prepared to compromise on the items on their agenda and to agree on putting our items first. In August, after we received an email from the vice-chancellor that spoke to this, we decided to contact the Department of Labour to ask for their assistance in getting the process moving. The administration refused to meet with us. We turned up to the meeting on October 25th, they did not. Their tactic, to get around negotiating with us, was to rush an item onto the agenda of a scheduled F&GPC meeting under Any Other Business, and get those present to agree to those unilateral increases. We reject it entirely,” Thomas expressed.

When asked about the university’s financial position and if that may be what is hindering a solid increase, Thomas said that “In negotiations you’re normally required to provide the documentation that will support your statements about what you can afford and what you cannot afford. Normally they would have to give us the documents that lay out the university’s financial position, and we did not receive documentation that we feel confident about as yet. We’re still waiting for that documentation with the university’s financial position.”

She added, “Since the manner in which expenditure has been done in the university has really not taken into account what stuff we would like to see happen, we don’t feel in any way responsible for our financial situation and our position. And staff should not suffer for whatever has happened in terms of the university’s spending.”

UGWU President, Bruce Haynes said at the press conference that “If you remove some of the very critical staff from this university you are not going to have anything positive happening… we will stop like a ship that is dead in the water. A lot of stuff that the UB staff does for this university is taken for granted… it is not valued. They have to start addressing things that make our staff uncomfortable.”

Sharing the same sentiment, UGWU Execute member, Khemraj Narine said, “Our staff, both UA and UB, are doing a human service to this university but are not shown the appreciation that they deserve. If this university is going to move swiftly into the 21st century, it can’t be by buildings. No building could move. It takes people to do that… it takes people who are informed, who are knowledgeable, who are skilled and if you’re talking oil and gas, we are in trouble.”

According to Thomas, persons do not realise that the 2015 industrial action was taken because of the fact that staff were subsidising the university.

“This year the practice still continues. And as I said, more money is coming into the university and you can see evidence of spending, and staff are still paying for essentials for the University. Staff are still paying for paper, providing projectors and bringing them to use in classrooms for presentations. I was told by somebody yesterday that they had to go and buy their own office supplies and paper clips because they were told they can’t have any,” she said.

At the press conference, the body also expressed that the university is currently looking for a new chancellor and they hope that the chancellor will be someone who will be in the position to provide leadership of integrity and wisdom to the council, and to the university. They also hope that the council acts in a way that will enable staff to have trust and believe in the body.