By Abass Jalloh
The Academic Staff Association of the University of Sierra Leone (ASA-USL) has expressed dissatisfaction over Government’s failure to honour a 100% salary adjustment agreement in the just presented 2020 budget.
The raised the concern in a press statement issued on Wednesday, 18th November.
“It is worthy to note that the adjustment came as a result of not having reviewed our Conditions of Service (COS) since 2011 and our conditions stipulate that we review our COS every three years. The review was also meant to defray the astronomical surge in the dollar-leone-exchange rate, which affects every span of economic activity,” the statement reads.
“Our salary has remained stagnant despite the demand on us to undertake online teaching, which adversely affected our minimal salaries. We have not received any salary adjustment in the face of Government support to hotel and tourism and other sectors,” the statement adds.
The association therefore called for “concrete agreement” to be signed between the Vice Chancellor and the Principal of USL and the ASA-USL, with the former undertaking the payment of the 100% adjustment of the current take home salary of the USL staff.
The statement went on to note that the said agreement “must” be singed before Monday, 23rd November, noting that failure to do so, the association will “lift the suspension on the recently suspended industrial action”.
The Fourah Bay College’s Students’ Union Government (SUG) has also called on the attention of the college administration to note the effect of the pending industrial action on the ongoing second semester examination.
“It is also noteworthy that third and final year students are long done with their examinations, and the pending action by ASA-USL has the tendency of greatly interfering with the ongoing Second Semester Examinations, which will adversely affect first and second year students, and which will be very unfair too,” a statement from the SUG reads.
The position of the SUG suggests that the college should find a remedy for the current situation to prevent disruption of the ongoing examination or a suspension, giving the fact that this year’s academic year has not been favourable for students.
The FBC’s second semester examination for first year and second year students started on Monday, 16th November, and it will end on Monday, 30th November.
The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in Sierra Leone seriously affected the 2020 academic year as schools, colleges and universities were forced to shut down for over long period of time to prevent the spread of the virus in the country. Most academic institutions and their students are now struggling to make up for lost time.
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