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KAMPALA, UGANDA | THE INDEPENDENT | Makerere University Guild President, Vincent Nsamba, has asked the university’s top management and joint staff associations to seek alternative solutions to the ongoing staff strike.
In a letter dated October 11, addressed to Acting Vice-Chancellor Professor Mukadasi Buyinza, Nsamba expressed concern that while staff grievances are acknowledged, the continued strike unfairly deprives students of the services they pay for.
“This matter should be handled as soon as possible before the students lose their patience”, Nsamba said in a letter copied to all staff associations and other members of the top management.
He added, “While we acknowledge that staff have a right to withdraw labour, we contend that students equally have a right to be taught. Yet high-quality learning can only take place when the staff’s rights are respected, and protected,” he said.
“Unfortunately, innocent students are the victims of all these actions. Students are missing lectures and are being denied other services that the striking staff provide. This is even though the students will be required to pay full fees by the end of the semester. Furthermore, industrial action curtails the academic progression of the students, which increases their expenditure yet they are already surviving on stringent budgets,” Nsamba said.
Makerere University staff through their joint staff Associations, Muasa, Masa, and National Union of Education Institutions (NUEI) announced the strike on Monday as they contest the University’s failure to have their staff salaries harmonized to a level of staff in other public universities.
The staff accused the university management of failure to honour its commitment to pay harmonized salaries by September 2024 which they had agreed on two months back.
In a letter dated October 7, 2024, staff accused the university management of reneging on an agreement to implement salary harmonization by September 2024. They also raised concerns about the demotion of several staff members and claimed that some staff who had their salaries adjusted received letters without clear salary figures, which they viewed as an attempt to defraud them.
The staff’s argument in all this is that; it is grossly unfair for individuals with similar qualifications to receive different salaries, with some earning only half of what their counterparts in other public universities receive.
However, in a letter addressed to all staff, Professor Mukadasi, the acting Vice Chancellor said that the salary harmonization affects specific staff categories, excluding teaching staff. “The salary harmonization process affects administrative and support staff at Makerere University. There are 1386 staff members in the harmonization categories, including 933 support staff and 253 administrative staff,”
Mukadasi subsequently asked all staff to call their strike off and get back to their duties because most of their grievances were already being addressed to the concerned parties.
Nsamba said that the management has to consider also the non-teaching staff because they also complement the education puzzle. “The teaching staff cannot teach effectively while their lab technicians, librarians, cleaners, etc. are on strike,” he said
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