DAYS ahead of a planned “blackout” on campus, all protest action has ceased at The University of the West Indies (The UWI), St Augustine Campus, as the “majority” of staff have accepted the Government’s 6% wage increase offer.
President of the West Indies Group of University Teachers (WIGUT) Dr Indira Rampersad said yesterday while the increase was not comparable to what would be received by public officials whose salaries have been raised by the Salaries Review Commission (SRC), the union’s members decided that accepting the State’s offer was in their best interest in the current “uncertain” economic climate.
Lecturers at The UWI have since early January staged several protests as they pressed the Government for a 24% salary increase, as well as back pay for the negotiation period 2014-2020. The union, through university principal Professor Rose-Marie Belle Antoine, has been negotiating with the Government since 2023. The Government also announced in 2022 that it would be cutting funding to The UWI by 10%.
Finance Minister Colm Imbert declined the union’s proposed rate, stating that the payout could not be supported by the Treasury. Imbert in January 2024 increased the Government’s offer to 6% but WIGUT stepped up its threats to withhold the marking of papers for the ongoing examination period. Dubbed “February Fury” the protest action also threatened to shut down the campus next Monday, including its IT department.
Rampersad told TV6 on Friday that the State’s offer was not the best, as she also questioned why the negotiations were also tied to a Government mandate that The UWI conduct job evaluations.
She said the wage increases may improve following the job evaluation exercise for the next negotiation season. She added the majority of members on Thursday were shown the figures that they would receive under the Government’s current offer, which was 0-0-3 for the period 2014-2017 and 0-0-3 for the period 2017-2020.
Rampersad said some were sceptical as the amount was not “even the lowest rung of what the public officials are getting from the SRC report”.
The union head was referring to the last report of the SRC which in 2024 approved increases for Government and public officials under its purview.
Rampersad said WIGUT’s members voted in the majority for the increase, citing influences such as the “political and economic climate” and “uncertainty in the system”. She reported members also cited the ongoing state of emergency, and that there was now a “pending interim Prime Minister and acting Commissioner of Police”.
Stating that WIGUT was a “democratic union”, Rampersad said the teachers decided that “in this state of uncertainty and flux, it would be in their best interest to accept”.
She explained that WIGUT negotiates with the principal and the principal negotiates with the Government.
Imbert announced in a statement at the end of January that the wage offer had been increased to 6%, with back pay totalling around $165 million and which the Government has agreed to pay on The UWI’s behalf.
Imbert stated that the Government “has given the UWI administration, which is the employer of the academic staff at UWI, and has the responsibility to negotiate collective agreements with the West Indies Group of University Teachers (WIGUT), an improved offer for a wage increase for the 6-year period August 2014 to July 2020”.
The increase will cost $23 million per year in additional recurrent costs for The UWI, he said.
Imbert has also made it clear that the Government is not the employer of the academic staff at The UWI and is not a party to its wage agreements.
Principal worried
Rampersad said The UWI’s principal was “very worried about blackout week”, which was looming next week as protests continued this week.
She said Antoine sought “vigorously” to reach a compromise and agreement, so that campus operations would return to normal.
Rampersad said the membership met on Monday and again yesterday, while the acceptance of the 6% was conveyed to the principal in writing on Thursday. She said a communication had been issued to all members to “cease” protest action.
Rampersad said there was no time line yet on the increase, as the agreement had to be formalised. She said it was hoped that the increases and backpay would be paid in a timely way, as the lecturers had never before resorted to protest.
Rampersad said the campus will in the meantime also look at arranging better working conditions for staff.
The union president said the membership was “not elated” and there has been “no celebration”, but there has been a sense of relief as the process has been a lengthy and “very tiring” one.
She said the issues had also affected students, who were concerned about receiving their marks for this exam season. However, with protest action at a halt for now, the students’ papers will be marked and on time, she said, as lecturers have been notified to submit marks by February 10.
Stating that the campus will be going forward and back to normalcy, Rampersad went on to note Government expenditure, as well as the SRC’s recommendations of salary increases.
She said she was “not gleeful, especially in light of humongous increases for Government officials and seeing our expenditure going up”. She added, in the meanwhile, “huge sums” were being paid by the State as it loses legal cases.
Rampersad called The UWI lecturers’ salaries “preposterous and a travesty”, as the compensation was “nowhere near” that of other Caribbean counterparts.
