(Trinidad Guardian) – Minister of Tertiary Education Fazal Karim announced a new agreement between the lecturers and managers of the University of the West Indies (UWI) St Augustine Campus.
Speaking in Parliament yesterday, Karim said the $87 million in back pay owed to the university staff would be paid in tranches by May 31. The back pay is owed for the period August 1, 2011 to July 31, 2014.
The West Indies Group of University Teachers (WIGUT), the union representing university’s academic, senior administrative and professional staff, said they would make an official release on the matter on Monday, after they receive the offer in writing and discuss it with their executive.
WIGUT has been withholding students’ Semester One grades, while the university’s Student Guild Council has been leading student protests on Campus calling for the release of the grades.
Academic and non-academic staff forced their way into the office of Campus Principal Prof Clement Sankat on January 22, and called for an impromptu meeting with the principal. WIGUT President Dr Russell Ramsewak, who led that protest, said that if lecturers did not receive their $87 million by January 30, they would take further action against the university.
After a heated exchange outside his office, Sankat eventually agreed to meet with the WIGUT team inside, behind closed doors. Sankat subsequently told reporters that government owed UWI $200 million for Government Assisted Tertiary Education (GATE) subsidies.
Non-academic staff, who are represented by the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU), are also in negotiations with the campus administration. A negotiating team, led by OWTU’s UWI Branch President Sherbert McKie, held hour-long talks with campus administration, at the Main Administration Building from about 11 am yesterday.
