Newsday ( Trinidad and Tobago )
24 March 2023 ( Page 7 )
Nothing less than 10% salary increase
UWI teaching staff tells CPO ANGER: WIGUT vice president Dr Russel Ramsewak speaks at a protest at UWI, St Augustine campus. PHOTO BY NARISSA FRASER NARISSA FRASER MEMBERS of the West Indies Group of University Teachers (WIGUT) at the UWI, St Augustine campus are making it clear to Chief Personnel Officer (CPO) Darryl Dindial that they will only accept a salary increase of ten per cent or more. In addition, they want feedback on ongoing wage talks immediately. Over the last two months, the union has been protesting over stalled wage talks for senior administrative and professional staff. It has been awaiting remits from the Office of the CPO for months and its vice president, Dr Russel Ramsewak, said the union is annoyed. In a press release on March 2, UWI said salary negotiations for all staff, "that is, daily and weekly rated workers, monthly paid administrative technical and service staff, estate police persons, and academic, senior administrative and professional staff" were ongoing with the government via the CPO. It added, "Campus management has shared with all staff that it is awaiting word on the remits to enable the process to go forward and notes that there have been ongoing discussions with the CPO to secure these remits?' It said campus management would continue to engage with unions and give staff updates promptly. WIGUT has also been protesting by refusing to sign and submit final exam papers to the examination section; refusing to upload students' coursework grades and only indicating whether they failed or passed; refusing to have office hours and responses to students and facilitators outside the classroom; and refusing to hold remedial classes, among other things. During Thursday's protest on the campus, Ramsewak told Newsday that since 2019, WIGUT had submitted its proposal for salary increases to then campus principal Prof Brian Copeland. But he said it was only in May 2022 that this was delivered to the CPO "for assessment and to further the process. Since then, he said, "To date, no further action is forthcoming:' Over 60 members of the union marched around the campus wearing white, in what they dubbed the "whitewash march:' Ramsewak said the latest update the union has had from campus principal Prof RoseMaHe Belle Antoine is that the CPO had said that within foursix weeks he will take the file to an interministerial team. "What does that mean? We, the members, don't know. Is that a fixed timeline? No. Will that mean in foursix weeks we will have a remit? No. So at this point, we are very, very annoyed. "We think the actions of the university and the CPO (are) not in line with the best interest of the senior administrative and professional staff. "We are fed up. We are not accepting these openended timelines with no fixed decisionmaking processes anywhere in the horizon:' Newsday tried to contact Dindial, but all calls went unanswered.