'Disrespectful and unsatisfactory'

Dr Kevin Brown, president of the University of Technology (UTech), is hopeful that the Government will meet the salary demands of the entire staff population at the institution, as he believes this will determine whether high quality education continues to be offered there.

The Government has been undertaking a public sector compensation review, with salaries at UTech falling within the overall process.

Following the conclusion of UTech staffs' silent protests yesterday at the gates of their Papine, St Andrew and Montego Bay, St James campuses, as well as across from the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service and the Ministry of Education and Youth at Heroes Circle in Kingston, Brown told The Gleaner that the aim was to continue having dialogue with the Government of Jamaica for their portion of the new public sector compensation system.

"I believe that we have to offer competitive salaries to attract the best and the brightest to come and work here as academics to teach our students, and we also have to equally attract good administrative staff and retain them, so it is with that in mind that we are trying to achieve the best deal that the university deserves," Brown told The Gleaner in an interview after the public protest concluded.

"The aim is to continue to have dialogue and you would notice the nature of the protest [which was] peaceful. It was non-disruptive, so it was just the signal that we want to continue the process and we now look forward to sit down with our Government to continue those negotiations," he said.

The unions involved in yesterday's silent protests were the UTech Academic Staff Union (UTASU) and the UTech Administrative Staff Association (UTASA). These unions are in negotiations with the Government for a new salary dispensation package.

Brown also told The Gleaner that the institution has received the proposed salary scales under the Government's compensation review and the silent protest was just a signal that the employees of UTech would like to continue negotiating a better deal.

"Our staff groups have rejected the proposed scales. They believe it doesn't reflect the value of the institution and it doesn't compare to what has been offered to other public entities across the public service," Brown said.

"We are one institution and management has been working with the unions to negotiate with the Government of Jamaica, and so I think it's in the interest of everyone that we have a positive outcome as it relates to salaries for the University of Technology," he said.

Brown argued that the UTech staff are deserving of an increase because the institution represents the second largest tertiary level education provider in the English-speaking Caribbean, which aligns with the Government's science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEAM) agenda.

For her part, UTASA President Janette Grayson, speaking with The Gleaner during the silent protest, said there are matters that have been outstanding with the Government since last year and she is more worried about the staff members earning the minimum wage.

"We have staff who have fallen off the minimum wage, so, imagine if the Government choose to increase the minimum wage again this year. Then we are going to have that issue one more time again this year. It's bad and our matters need to be addressed urgently," Grayson said.

"The parity issue is that we have a 2017 -2019 heads of agreement where we wrote to our management and the Government and we asked for parity with regards to equal pay for administrative staff in academic entities including The UWI (University of the West Indies) and other government entities. We started the discussions about June last year, and, up until today, the matter is still not settled."

She also said the unions were asked to prepare a proposal for the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, which was prepared with several iterations, and that it was "at the desk of the ministry".

Grayson said however that her union is yet to receive feedback.

Grayson described the last offer made by the Government as "disrespectful and unsatisfactory to the staff".

She emphasised that, amid the early morning protests, the offices of UTech remained open and classes were not disrupted.

One week prior to the demonstrations, the neighbouring campus of The UWI Mona hosted a protest on the first day of its academic semester at the gates of the institution, calling for the same compensation review to be on par with an income pattern similar to their colleagues at other regional campuses, including the UWI campus in Cave Hill, Barbados.

At that time, Professor Hubert Devonish, leader of the West Indies Group of University Teachers (WIGUT) Jamaica's negotiating team, told The Gleaner that the protest was to keep their problems in the minds of the public and, more so, the current students at UWI Mona.

"The public sector people have been paid off since around April last year. We are left sitting. Finally, the Government coming to accept in January that the delay in compensation review for all the unions, including WIGUT, was not our fault, and that therefore they were willing to consider paying us an interim cost of living allowance, while the compensation review takes place, and that's going to take quite a few months going into the end of the year," he said.

"There has been this decision to set up a committee to look at options, so, by the end of January, we'll see what options the committee proposes to the minister, and then there will be the question of what the minister decides and, at that stage, whether there will have to be negotiations because it's what the minister decides. It's not what the unions wants," he said.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com