By Kemo Cham
The Sierra Leone government has up to January 1, 2021 to effect a 100 percent salary increment for lecturers of Njala University or face an industrial action, the Academic Staff Association (ASA) of the institution has said.
ASA-Njala issued a statement on Tuesday, reminding the government of its failure to meet its promise to increase its staff salary by 100 percent, among 12 demands from the association, including payment of leave allowance, backlog payment, and condition of service, made earlier this year.
According to the statement, the promises were made by the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education at a meeting with leaders of the association in August, 2020. That followed a notice of strike action planned for September.
“Out of the 12 points ASA outlined in the press release as burning issues affecting the smooth running of Njala University, only one (annual leave allowance) has been unsatisfactorily addressed,” the latest statement by the association, signed by its president, vice president and secretary general, reads in part.
The statement warned that with ahead of the impending grace period assured in the August letter, which is January 1, 2021, the association would resume its strike if the government doesn’t meet its demands by then.
The warning from ASA-Njala comes days after the staff association of the University of Sierra Leone (ASA-USL) resumed a strike action over pay. ASA-USL is also demanding a 100 percent increment in salary.
And like ASA-Njala, ASA-USL says the Higher Education Ministry had promised to meet the demand.
But Higher Education Minister, Prof. Aiah Gbakima, last week responded to the ASA-USL strike, denying that his ministry ever made any promise of 100 percent increment in salary.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Higher Education, when contacted, said they heard about the latest statement from ASA-Njala for the first time from Politico, and they promised to make an official reaction on Wednesday, after consultation with relevant authorities.
Njala and USL are the two government run universities in Sierra Leone. Njala is best known for its specialization in the sciences, especially biology and agriculture, for which it has produced renowned academics and industrial experts, among them Dr Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella, who served at the top level of the UN system until he joined politics and ran for the presidency in 2018. Yumkella is currently the head of the opposition National Grand Coalition (NGC) in parliament. Another celebrated product of Njala is renowned statistician, Prof. Osman Sankoh, who is currently the head of Statistics Sierra Leone, and is acting as Vice Chancellor of Njala University.
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