Public Universities Lecturers Threaten To Strike Over Meagre Salaries
Lecturers in government-owned universities under their umbrella body Forum for Academic Staff of Public Universities in Uganda (FASPU) are ready to go on strike because of poor pay and discriminatory salary enhancement.
The FASPU acting chairperson Tom Omute in a letter dated June 17, 2022, has asked members to prepare to lay down their tools citing empty promises from President Yoweri Museveni and the government.
Lecturers from ten universities – Kyambogo University, Makerere University, Makerere University Business School (MUBS), Mbarara University of Science & Technology, Gulu University, Busitema University, Lira University, Muni University, Kabale University and Soroti University – are expected to partake in the strike.
“The purpose of this letter is to notify you that all academic staff in public universities will resume their industrial action which was suspended on March 29, 2021, if salary enhancement to the agreed target is not addressed in the FY2022/2023,” Omute said in the letter to his colleagues.
The lecturers have at different times engaged the government over the matter including holding a meeting with President Museveni on December 14 2019 at State House Entebbe where the president promised to enhance their salaries in a phased and pro-rata manner.
The enhancement didn’t happen up to today despite numerous follow-ups and strikes. Now the lecturers are resuming their demands with an industrial action that will paralyse university education.
The lecturers’ grievances are being reawakened at a time when the government is dealing with striking primary and secondary schools’ arts subject teachers who are demanding salary increments following the same being offered to science subjects teachers.
