UTech administrative staff restive over unsettled wage issues

By Kimone Witter    

 

There is disquiet among another group of public sector workers over outstanding payments under the almost three-year-old compensation system.

 

The University of Technology Jamaica Administrative Staff Association (UTASA), says it is contemplating action following the breakdown in talks over the government's failure to conclude its outstanding compensation review exercise.

 

The staff association says adjustments have already been made for another group at the university.

 

But UTASA president Janette Grayson says non-academic staff are yet to get definitive word from the Ministries of Finance and Education on the reasons for the delay in the payment of new and retroactive salaries.

 

Ms. Grayson further explains that the group was promised in 2023, that if it signed the heads of agreement under the public sector compensation scheme, the staff would receive their new pay packages in two weeks. 

 

"The last time we really met with the Ministry of Education...was in October of 2024 when we signed our MOU. Since then, we have only had meetings with our management team, especially our president, Dr. Kevin Brown, who has been meeting with us and through telephone calls and physical meetings trying for us to get a perspective on what we are doing and for the government to understand the challenges that he's having and the challenges that we are having."

 

She warned that the administrative staff will be forced to take industrial action, suggesting that "it is the only message that our government tends to understand". 

 

The group, she said, will begin this industrial action if there is no positive feedback from the relevant ministries on Wednesday. 

 

Ms. Grayson said the administrative staff has been facing dire economic challenges due to the failure of the government to improve their salaries as promised.

 

She said the university has also been struggling to retain the required skil sets in the administrative department as the current salaries are not attractive, defeating the purpose of the compensation review. 

 

"We interview someone today and in two weeks, a month, the person will leave because the salary is not attractive. The staff on a whole are unable to make ends meet. And each year, as the economic climate worsens, the staff are suffering equally, because their colleagues in the public sector received their government compensation review in 2022," she lamented.