Unima salary saga: Some affected staff not ready to take it lying down

Academic staff at College of Medicine (CoM), who have been receiving a 40 percent top-up allowance, have vowed to legally fight back if the University of Malawi ( Unima ) Council proceeds to force them to pay back the allowances as one of the recommendations of a legal opinion advised.

The dispute has intensified following closure of Chancellor College (Chanco) after academic staff resolved to take industrial action over salary disparities within colleges under Unima.

At centre of controversy is CoM where some academic staff had been receiving a top-up 40 percent allowance for clinical services they offer in public hospitals, but it transpired that even some that were not rendering such services, were also on the list benefiting from that 40 percent top-up allowance.

While negotiations between the Unima Council and unions from the four constituent colleges are ongoing and being guided by a legal opinion that has made its recommendations to the council, the affected members have also been soliciting legal advice on the same.

The last meeting for the council , Unima management and unions for Chanco, Polytechnic, CoM and Kamuzu College of Nursing (KCN) took place on April 8. Chanco Academic Staff Union (Ccasu) president Anthony Gunde, who has been mandated to speak for all the Unima unions, said in an interview this week, that progress was being made, but the dispute remained unresolved.

What has brought anxiety among some academic staff at CoM, is a recommendation by legal expert Modecai Msisha, who was engaged by Unima Council as a conciliator.

In his recommendations , Msisha said council had option to “terminate and claw back supplementation paid to CoM academic staff not providing clinical services;” or continue payment of the money but award all academic staff the 40 percent compensation equivalent to the money the CoM academic staff were ‘erroneously receiving”.

 He said council would also ensure that CoM does not pay the allowance to academic staff on study leave and, therefore, rendering no clinical services, leaving the authority to make such payment to the Ministry of Health.

There are about 14 academic staff members at CoM, according to a list Nation on Sunday has seen, who are said to have been receiving the top-up allowance, but without rendering clinical services.

Some of them have, reportedly, continued to receive the allowance, according to the Msisha report, while on study leave.

But some of the affected academic staff members are soliciting legal advice on how to challenge Msisha’s recommendations, should the council attempt to implement them, arguing that they all along had legitimate belief, as per their contracts, that they were entitled to the allowance.

One of the affected staff members, who opted for anonymity, said in an interview on Tuesday that since the inception of CoM in 1991, the council has been offering basic salaries to clinically qualified CoM staff without separation of that 40 percent top-up allowance they have been receiving, making it a clean wage.

“Changing it now whether some of us were offering the clinical services or not for one reason or another would mean altering the terms and conditions of contracts we entered into, and that is illegal; hence unacceptable.

“We see this issue getting more complicated and bringing more trouble to Unima colleges if the negotiating teams simply focus on recommendations they have, and ignoring how this came about,” said the staff member.

He said all along their salary scales have been showing both gross and basic salaries, and with the 40 percent being treated as part of their salaries and pensionable, arguing that to reverse that would bring unimaginable confusion.

Asked, specifically, about CoM and how the matter was being handled, Gunde said it was tricky to discuss one college in a matter they have come together.

He, however, admitted that the unions have different interests some in favour

of the recommendations by Msisha and some not in favour but he said efforts were being made to reach a common ground.

Gunde disclosed that unions are expected to be consulting their members and giving them feedback as they are preparing for another meeting on a date to be set for further dialogue.

But he feared that commenting on real developments that transpired at the dialogue meeting may pre-empt or jeopardise the talks.

But Msisha already expressed fear in his report that the pay back demand, if implemented, would face resistance.

“If, as I feel was in fact the case, CoM presented a salary scale which combined salary and supplementation to every recruit or academic staff on contract renewal thus indicating that CoM clinically qualified staff were on a separate salary scale, unrelated to the issue of the provision of clinical services to MoH [Ministry of Health], then CoM will meet resistance in any claw back attempt,” reads Msisha’s report.

Msisha, in his report, said the arrangements between MoH, Ministry of Education, CoM and council led to the view that the university was, in fact, adopting and implementing a separate salary scale for holders of MBBS qualification (medical doctors).

He said the impression this created was that the council had a separate salary scale for medical doctors, whether or not they render clinical services. Msisha said the lack of clarity as to the amount transferred by the Ministry of Education to council/ CoM for supplementation also contributed to the misunderstanding.