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  • 10 months ago
Loud chants by hundreds of protesting UWI St. Augustine staff, forced the Campus Registrar to leave the Campus Council meeting, and confront the workers face-to-face.
Members of the Executive, including the Principal, Rose-Marie Belle Antoine and Vice-Chancellor Sir Hilary Beckles, were gathered at the Teaching & Learning Complex, to present the 2023-2024 Annual Report. Rynessa Cutting has more.
Transcript
00:00Hundreds of UWE workers, from administrative and technical and service staff, to daily
00:13and weekly rated workers, put their respective tools down and converged on the teaching and
00:18learning complex where the top brass of the UWE St. Augustine had gathered to present
00:23the 2023-2024 Annual Report.
00:35With their chants too loud and their numbers too strong to be ignored, Campus Registrar
00:40Dr. Dawn-Marie Defoe-Gill was forced to come out, much to the satisfaction of the disgruntled
00:47workers.
00:53We will send it in writing, Mr. Stewart, we will address any issues that you initiated
01:00and we will wait for feedback from them on a time and date that is convenient to them.
01:06Now Madam Registrar, why did it have to come to this?
01:10Yes!
01:11Yes!
01:12Yes!
01:13Yes!
01:14Yes!
01:15Yes!
01:16Yes!
01:17Yes!
01:18Yes!
01:20We did get a remit that was communicated.
01:25The union rejected the remit and submitted a counter-proposal.
01:32When the counter-proposal was submitted, we immediately sent it to the government, the
01:38Ministry of Education and we are awaiting feedback from them since.
01:43The protest action comes as several hundred UWE St. Augustine workers are still without
01:48wage increments and other benefits, dating as far back as 2015.
01:53Last month, the university settled with Wigot at a 6% increase for the lecturers after a
01:58few months of negotiations.
02:01Our proposal is 6%, two years in the first year, two years in the second year, two years
02:07in the third year, with a consolidation of ACOLA.
02:10That is what we are asking for.
02:12It would cost roughly about $4 million to settle, based on what the government offered.
02:17And they would have settled $6 million where Wigat is concerned.
02:22So, you're looking at, you have a smaller money to pay out, but rather than pay out
02:27the smaller money, you opted to go for the larger sum.
02:29That doesn't make sense to anybody.
02:31The 800-plus staff body represented by the OWTU says they will continue the protest action
02:38until they get their just due.
02:40Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.
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