UWI trims fat: Billion-dollar squeeze forces university to cut staff at Mona
Published:Sunday | January 16, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Tyrone Reid, Sunday Gleaner Reporter
Faced with a $1-billion slash in its subvention from the Government, the University of the West Indies, Mona campus, has cut staff in some areas and redeployed others amid protracted contract negotiations and delayed salary payments for certain categories of employees.
The cuts come amid great unease at the institution since campus principal, Professor Gordon Shirley, stated six months ago that the university was in a tight spot and that adjustments would have to be made, including job cuts.
He said then that job cuts would be a last resort as every effort would be made to find some savings.
It now seems the efforts have not been enough to realise the level of savings desired.
In response to questions from The Sunday Gleaner, Carroll Edwards, head of marketing and communications at the UWI, said reductions in part-time staff had resulted from the efforts to manage the teaching load of the academic departments. Administrative staff members had been redeployed in some instances, and there had also been some staff reductions through attrition, she noted.
Reliable sources reported that towards the end of last year, there was a stand-off between the West Indies Group of University Teachers (WIGUT), the faculty union, and management of the university because contracts were withheld for over three months from the start of the current
academic year in August 2010, and some academic staff hired at that time were not paid for months.
The Sunday Gleaner understands that WIGUT urged the UWI management to address contract problems by December 31, 2010, or staff members "may not have been available to complete" examination mark sheets for the first semester. The collision was averted after the university's management reportedly agreed to reverse thorny contractual decisions and pledged to address the other matters raised in a grievance notice submitted by the union on December 15, 2010.
withheld services
It was also reported that some medical doctors who provided part-time supervision of medical students in their clinical practice in hospitals and clinics islandwide withdrew their services in September when no contracts were offered.
"Given the precipitous nature of the changes imposed on the campus, it was not possible to proceed with the changes in all faculties apace," Edwards said.
However, she noted that all those lecturers have now received longer contracts, and all have been compensated for their work. She explained that at the beginning of the current academic year, associate lecturers in the Faculty of Medical Sciences requested a large increase in their rate of compensation, which was substantially in excess of the guidelines provided by the Government.
It was during the ensuing discussions that "some associates at one government hospital withheld their services", but "the matter was resolved and normality was restored after a brief period of disruption in the clinical rotations at that institution".
Edwards also stated that a programme to substantially improve administrative efficiency was currently in progress in the academic and administrative units of the campus. "Programmes to reduce non-staff costs are also being implemented, with success in some areas already having been realised, including in utilities, insurance, purchasing, and housing," she revealed.
contractual arrangements
Among the concerns cited by UWI staff was that the principal would no longer approve a three-year contract for anyone who did not have a PhD, and even those with a doctorate were not guaranteed a three-year contract, which used to be the norm.
"People with one-year contracts are the most vulnerable because they have almost no benefits, not even book grants to buy themselves copies of the textbooks they must use in teaching, and absolutely no job security," a lecturer noted.
But in its response, the UWI said: "Given the importance of research, there is a preference for candidates with terminal degrees, all else being equal, but this is not required under the regulations. There are several members of staff with three-year contracts who do not have PhDs, although all have compensating experience and add value through their work."
Additionally, according to Edwards, in respect of the academic programmes, a mechanism to systematically analyse the teaching load of all full-time and part-time staff members is being implemented, allowing for greater transparency and consistency in the allocation of responsibilities and in the compensation for teaching in programmes across the faculties on the campus," Edwards revealed.
The university says it has implemented systems to provide all temporary and part-time academic staff with contracts which specify their responsibilities prior to the start of the teaching period, and which allow for them to be paid routinely in a manner identical to full-time staff.