By Abass Jalloh
The University of Sierra Leone Academic Staff Association (ASA-USL) has suspended its industrial action to allow for examination to continue.
But the decision by the association was based on the condition that the USL administration meets its demand by the end of December.
The development comes after a meeting by ASA members, which Politico learnt followed an earlier negotiation involving the university administration and the ministry of Labour, in which the USL asked for two weeks for it to work out something in regards the lecturers’ demands.
The decision by ASA also comes immediately after the Students’ Union body of the USL pleaded with them to consider their plight and suspend the strike action so that examinations will continue.
One of the three constituent colleges of the USL, Fourah Bay College (FBC), wasted no time to publish its timetable for the continuation of the second semester examination on Friday 4th December. According to the timetable, the exams will resume on Tuesday 8th December.
The other two colleges: Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM) and the College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences (COMAHS) are expected to follow suit, subsequently.
After a closed door meeting by ASA members on Friday December 4 at IPAM Campus, the President of ASA, Dr. Williette James, spoke to the press about the outcome, noting that they had met with the USL administration in a meeting that was presided over by the Minister of Labour on Thursday November 26 and that the University Court pleaded with them to give them two weeks, within which they should conduct exams.
She also acknowledged receipt of an open letter from the students pleading with them to call off the strike action for their exams to continue. Dr James noted that they considered all of those factors in taking their decision.
“We said okay. We would give them more than two weeks. We said we would allow them to finish the exams because we considered the fact that two weeks is not enough for them to conduct the exams, so we have been magnanimous enough, so we are giving them up to the 31st of December… They should have come up with something tangible for us,” she stated.
Ms James warned that should the stated date pass and the university authorities fail to meet their demands, they would resume their strike action thereafter. She however noted that they were hopeful for a positive outcome.
“My concern is the welfare of my members. We have been for nine years. We have to articulate our needs, and we are optimistic that they would meet our demands,” she said.
ASA is requesting a 100% salary adjustment from the government, in addition to two other demands, including fulfilment of a three-month backlog salary payment to all staff.
The association said this is part of an agreement it the government had committed to fulfilling.
But late last month the Minister of Technical and Higher Education, Prof. Aiah Gbakima, challenged ASA to provide proof that he signed any such document committing the government to any such agreement.
In reaction to that statement, Dr. James noted that the Minister was never part of any negotiation that they embarked on with the government on this issue.
“The Minister of Higher Education has never been part of any negotiation meeting, so when we got to that negotiation that we are talking about and that he was referring to, he was not present, so he could not have signed any document if he wasn’t part of any meeting,” she said.
James went on to note that government are saying they did not agree to that even though the representatives of the Ministry of finance , education and Technical Education Commission (TEC) were present at that meeting and that there was no minutes for the said meeting.
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