UTech academic staff end strike for now

The University of Technology, Jamaica Academic Staff Union (UTASU) is reporting that it has agreed for its members to temporarily return to work today, halting their industrial action which started more than a week ago.

In a statement last night, UTASU said the move is to give the management of the university time to secure additional funding towards the payment of retroactive sums owed to academic staff for the period 2018/9 and to outline a firm schedule of payment.

The parties met at the Ministry of Labour yesterday.

Operations at university have been tense since payday on October 25 when the more than 500 employees took industrial action over the non-payment of retroactive sums.

The union says it along with the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, the Ministry of Education Youth and Information and the university’s management in May 2019 agreed to pay retroactive amounts owed to academic staff for 2018/2019 in three tranches ending in May 2020.

The first instalment was paid in July but the university failed to pay the second tranche due in October.

The finance ministry indicated then that it was unable to provide additional funding to cover the sums.

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

The remaining $150 million would be paid by university.

This falls short of the $886 million in retroactive money for 2018/2019.

UTASU rejected the proposal arguing that the sums on the table amount to 45 percent of the retroactive money for 2018/2019 with no commitment for payment of the remaining 55 percent and that the offer did not outlined a schedule of payments for the retroactive amounts for 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2017/18.

Collectively, the back pay covering the four contract periods total just under $4 billion.

The academic employees argued that 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.

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