Page 15 - Islands Business March 2024

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and other university-related activities”). medical insurance premiums this year.
On March 6, after another follow-up request for an After this month’s secret ballot in favour of industrial
interview, Ahluwalia responded with the following email: action, the unions offered management “one more chance
“Many of the questions that you ask in relation to staff to come to the table” before going ahead with a strike.
are being discussed with the respective unions and it is Management had one week to engage in discussions and 21
inappropriate for me to make comments through the media. days to reach an agreement.
Most of your other questions relate directly to matters that
are the business of our Council and its deliberations are COVID deal
confidential so it is inappropriate too for me to discuss these The unions, according to Colata, had a deal with Ahluwalia
matters outside of Council.” that staff would forgo salary adjustments and 10 days of leave
We also sought a response from Professor Pat Walsh, Acting for the 2019-2021 triennium, to cushion the impact of the
Pro-Chancellor of USP, and Chair of the Council. Walsh is the COVID-19 downturn. The arrangement was to be revisited
New Zealand government’s representative on the Council. He when things normalised, Colata told Islands Business.
did not respond. “The last time we got salary adjustments was in 2018. The
In the absence of responses from USP, we sought amount was 5% paid in December and backdated to January.
comparative insight by speaking to senior regional academic This time we are seeking another 5% increase, backdated to
figures such as Fiji National University pioneering Vice 2019,” Colata said.
Chancellor and long-time academic, Dr Ganesh Chand; newly The academic and professional staff (represented by AUSPS)
appointed Vice Chancellor of the Solomon Islands National want a 3% increase, also backdated to 2019. Personnel in this
University, Professor Transform Aqorau (who is a renowned category include the VC and the Senior Management Team
regional academic and fisheries expert); and Dr Hilda Heine, (SMT). They received salary increases in 2018, but according
who was Pro-Chancellor and Chair of the USP Council from to Colata, their payment was made in July that year and
January 2022 until December 2023, and resigned after winning backdated to the start of that triennium in January 2016.
back the Presidency of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. “In that payout, some staff got a 5% increase, some got 7%,
Islands Business delves into these issues in this special and some 12%.”
report by Fiji correspondent, Joe Yaya, edited by Richard USP has already paid out a 4% wage rise to staff in the
Naidu. current triennium (2% in October 2022 and 2% in January
2023), with another 2% approved for January 2024.
Framed in irony But the unions say the 6% was approved without any
If irony is central to storytelling, then the University of the consultation with them.
South Pacific saga is perfectly framed. The same staff unions AUSPS general secretary, Rosalia Fatiaki told Islands
that rallied in support of Vice Chancellor Pal Ahluwalia after Business the backdated salary adjustments that the unions are
his deportation from Fiji in 2021, are now demanding his demanding will cost the University around FJ$13.8m (FJ$7.2m
removal. for academics and $6.6m for administration and support
‘Pal to go!’ a placard read, as staff gathered outside the staff).
University’s Japan Pacific ICT Theatre on November 27 last Colata said the claims the unions are making is valid
year, voicing their demands for a pay rise and a new Vice because “USP is making a surplus every year, and there
Chancellor, as the USP Council met. is money in the reserves. Staff are overworked and the
A Council meeting in May last year had directed Ahluwalia vacancies are not filled. People are taking on extra
to discuss the matters with USP’s two unions – the Association responsibilities without reward.
of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and “Leadership is the problem.”
the Administration and Support Staff Union – and bring the
outcomes to the Council’s November sitting. Finances and student numbers
But, according to Administration and Support Staff Union USP’s annual reports show it has been making an operating
president, Reuben Colata, Ahluwalia never called for any surplus - FJ$9.42m in 2017 to FJ$31.06m in 2020, dropping
discussions with them, and when the unions tried to present to FJ$11.09m in 2021 to FJ$4.04m in 2022, and forecast to
the issue again in November, the Council did not allow the bounce back to FJ$11.38m in 2024.
item onto the agenda. Cash reserves also increased from FJ$65.3m in 2017,
The unions said the University had refused to negotiate surpassing the FJ$100m mark in 2022 (FJ$110.3m), and are
their demands for backdated pay, and to address the extra expected to total FJ$118.3m in 2024.
workload on staff carrying the large number (455 in 2023) of The previous FijiFirst government’s freeze on Fiji’s annual
vacant positions the University has failed to fill. They claim grant contributions to USP in 2019 in the battle with Ahluwalia
USP has saved around FJ$14.8m in not paying salaries for was lifted by Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, with the first
those vacant positions. tranche of FJ$10m to USP released last February, along with
They say current salary levels are not enough to counter the removal of the ban against the Vice Chancellor returning
the annual 3% inflation rate, the increase of Value Added Tax to Fiji.
in Fiji from 9% to 15%, and the 20% upsurge in compulsory Fiji’s Finance Minister, Professor Biman Prasad told Islands

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