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UTech strike off - Staff agree to return to work, giving admin more time to settle outstanding payments

Published:Wednesday | November 6, 2019 | 12:00 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
Placard-bearing UTech students protest at the entrance to the Ministry of Education's Heroes Circle offices last Friday.

The University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) Academic Staff Union yesterday agreed to go back to work after nearly two weeks of strike action over the non-payment of retroactive salaries caused a massive disruption to teaching schedules at the institution with exams on the horizon.

Yesterday's meeting at the Ministry of Labour and Social Security saw the academic staff pledging to return to the classrooms this morning, giving the university's management more time to secure additional funding towards the payment of retroactive sums owed and outline a firm schedule of payment.

The announcement came in a late-night press release and could be of some relief to UTech President Professor Stephen Vasciannie, who told The Gleaner hours before that he was anticipating news before this morning.

“I am waiting to hear from the members of staff if they are going back to work tomorrow, and I thought they would have told me by now and I would have been able to tell you,” he told our news team late yesterday evening.

“There were discussions as to our desire for the members of staff to go back to work and they explained their perspective on the whole thing. We gave a perspective and they gave a perspective then we went into separate rooms, so I don’t know what position they have taken,” he added.

He said he was unsure of whether classes would resume today, reiterating to The Gleaner, “I expect to hear something before the night is out."

The staff and administration of the university have been at loggerheads over the non-payment of the sums for some time and have vacated the classrooms in protest several times since the start of the calendar year. The latest strike action started on October 25.

Following a meeting last Thursday at the Ministry of Education, the Government proposed to pay staff $400 million of the outstanding funds for 2018/19, pledging $250 million from its existing budget.

The remaining $150 million, it said, would be paid by UTech.

The $400 million is in addition to $1 billion, a 45 per cent increase in subvention, approved last month for the university in the supplementary estimates.

The offer was rejected and on Monday, the staff voted against another offer for payment of 45 per cent of the retroactive amounts owed for 2018-2019.

The academic staff said the offer contained no commitment for payment of the remaining 55 per cent of the 2018/19 amounts, nor did it outlined a schedule of payments for the retroactive amounts for 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2017/18.

The academic staff says they are already being denied at least five years of retroactive payments due from 2010 to 2015 and believe that the request for further sacrifice is unreasonable and unjust.

“The union described the offer as incomplete, a retrograde step and an erosion of the agreement reached in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information and the university’s management in May, 2019, to pay retroactive amounts owed to academic staff in three tranches, ending in May, 2020,” the staff said in a release on Monday.

Another meeting is scheduled at the Ministry of Labour and Social Security for next Monday at 10 a.m., at which time it is expected that there will be formalisation of the agreement reached.

andre.williams@gleanerjm.com