UTech administrative staff resume work, await wage proposal

By Halshane Burke   

 

The University of Technology Jamaica Administrative Staff Association says it is awaiting a proposal from the University's management on the compensation package.

 

UTASA says a rationalisation of the salary structure to align the salaries of the administrative staff to other categories of workers across the government sector, which was agreed on in March this year, is yet to be implemented.

 

UTASA President Janette Grayson says a meeting was held with the management on Monday ahead of a planned meeting with her members:

 

"We have come to a consensus between ourselves and our management who met with us an hour before we met with our members, and they have agreed to continue to pursue the proposal. And hopefully, we should get a copy early next week. For now, as is normal in the negotiation business, is that we will go back to work. And if next week, when the date that we were given that we would get the proposal, we do not get it, then we will take the matter from there," she said. 

 

According to Ms. Grayson, she underscored at the meeting the need for a speedy resolution of the matter for the well-being of the staff. 

 

"We were promised that we would have gotten the proposal in April, and we highlighted the hardship that our members have been undergoing, especially in this back-to-school season. We have expressed to our management that it's really difficult for us to survive with what we are currently getting, and we pointed out to them, and we looked at the fact that our spending power is very, very limited at this time, and so we're asking them to look deeply into that matter and to have that discussion with our parent ministries."