FBC, Njala on strike

The Vice President of the Academic Staff Association of Fourah Bay College (ASA-FBC) says they have resolved with immediate effect to suspend all academic activities until their demands over pay and conditions are met, effectively joining their colleagues at Njala University who have been on an industrial action for weeks. Ambrose Rogers told Politico that the “unanimous decision” was reached at a meeting held yesterday by lecturers at the FBC campus. He said they decided to embark on an industrial action as a “last resort” in calling on the university administration to meet its commitment to staff of the university. Rogers said the university administration had signed an agreement with the Academic Staff Association at the start of the 2011/2012 academic year in which it agreed on a salary increase for lecturers to be staggered over a period of three academic years. He said the university administration paid the first tranche of the salary increase in October 2012 but had reneged on meeting the rest of their commitment. He said a 21-day notice of a pending strike action was issues last month to draw the attention of the university authorities to their commitment reached with lecturers, adding that the authorities “neither acknowledged nor responded” to their warning. He said the ASA FBC executive was left with no options but to resort to an industrial sit-down strike as a way to convey their “frustrations” to the university authorities. Rogers said that they were also dissatisfied over the manner in which the agreement was being implemented. He said that by now, over 60% of the agreement should have been effected, adding that it was almost impossible to complete the implementation of the agreement in its third and final year. The Registrar of the University of Sierra Leone, Sorie N. Dumbuya said the university authorities would convene an emergency meeting today, Thursday, to respond to the strike. A similar sit-down strike action has been going on at Njala University since 8 February. In a press release issued on 26 February, president of the Njala Academic Staff Association, Thurad Senessie said that out of the 400 % salary increment agreement, only 75 % had been met. He said that the remaining 325 % should be “implemented in full including all other elements of the Conditions of Service as agreed upon in 2011” and that “the current strike action will therefore continue until all the demands of ASA are met”.