The negotiations between the administration of the University of Guyana (UG) and the workers are at a standstill, as the sides could not find common ground on the terms of the proposals since the respective unions have rejected the final offers of six per cent and eight per cent increases. These increases were reduced from Government’s budgeted recommendation of 15 per cent for this year.
The University of Guyana
Guyana Times reported that the relevant unions – UG Workers Union (UGWU) and UG Senior Staff Association (UGSSA) – while initially willing to accept the financial part of the deal, were hesitant to accept the ‘performance’ aspect of the agreement. According to reports that surfaced on Tuesday, the unions refused to sign the agreement on the basis that the criteria calling for performance to be considered was a ‘violation’ of previous agreements between unions and the UG administration.
This debate between the unions and UG’s administration has been ongoing for the last several months and it reached the point where the workers staged several protest actions, demanding substantial salary increases, and called for academic and non-academic staff to receive upticks of 23 per cent and 25 per cent respectively. UG noted in late September that obligations, including benefits such as allowances for travelling, entertainment, uniforms and academic materials; study leave (salary and housing for three months); sabbatical leave (salary and housing for 12 months); leave passage; and duty allowance for Deans, Heads and Co-coordinators would have been met if the staff had accepted the deal. The increases would have been retroactive to January 1, 2017.
On Friday last, UG’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Ivelaw Griffith told Guyana Times that he had insisted that performance of staff members be considered before the payments were disbursed.
“We gave the final offer (Friday) and the sticking point is not so much the percentage increase, the sticking point is that I’m insisting that performance be part of that agreement and they (the unions) are saying no [so] I’m saying we’re not going to have any agreement,” the Vice Chancellor had affirmed. Professor Griffith also maintained that staff with outstanding grades for students should not be paid increases until those grades were submitted.
It was on August 30 that the unions’ learnt of the administration’s offer which followed negotiations that began on July 12. Guyana Times was informed that upon the university’s disclosure of the performance criteria, the unions informed members that if they are not in agreement they can go to conciliation.
In 2016, the workers said while the UG administration claimed it had no money to pay benefits, including 10 bursaries for their children who performed with distinction at national exams, it was at that time able to find “over $8 million to increase the salaries of statutory officers who had joined the university some eight months prior. To this end, it was highlighted that the take-home pay of certain categories of staff amounted to approximately $1 million per month.
