Unima support staff get half salary in Dec
University of Malawi (Unima) striking members of the support staff from its constituent colleges have celebrated their festive season with near-empty pockets after their December salaries were deducted by almost half for reportedly staging an illegal strike.
The employees have been on industrial action since early December aimed at forcing Unima management to raise their salaries by 45 percent as has been the case with the main civil service, The Nation has learnt.
At a time most employees have been making merry following end of year bonuses and hampers presented to them by their employers, the situation has been different with Unima support staff who have been gnashing their teeth due to the dilemma.
The affected employees are those from the Chancellor College, the Polytechnic and Kamuzu College of Nursing while those from College of Medicine reportedly got their full package despite being part of the striking staff.
Chairperson of Unima Workers Trade Union, Franklin Kapeni, confirmed yesterday that management deducted their salaries for allegedly staging a strike. He described the cuts as illegal.
“We followed all the procedures before going on strike. We wrote management and Ministry of Labour, there is communication to that effect, but we were surprised when management just gave us salaries for 14 days,” said Kapeni.
He added: “We have been trying to reason with management to reconsider their position because we don’t want to proceed with the strike after our other concerns were already addressed by government. We want the students to be in class on January 5, but this mess will force the members of staff to think otherwise,” he said.
According to Kapeni, government reportedly offered them 36 percent salary increment, which, he said, they are satisfied with.
While confirming the development, Unima registrar Benedicto Wokomaatani Malunga said in an interview the university deducted the salaries for the days the employees did not work.
“We have not paid them for the days they have not been working. This was done because their strike was illegal and the principal secretary for Labour and Manpower Development wrote them advising them that their strike was illegal because they did not follow all procedures and asked them to resume work,” he said.
Principal Secretary for Labour and Manpower Development Patrick Kabambe said in a statement issued during the week that the national legislation governing strikes, the Labour Relations Act (LRA) cap 55:01 states that an employer is under no obligation to pay wages (salary) for the period employees are on strike even where the strike is legal because the employer cannot ask workers upon returning from a strike to make up for the time they were on strike.
“Thus the general rule of ‘no work no pay’ equally applies to a strike. If it were not to apply the law would have clearly stated so as it has done in other cases of annual leave or sick leave or public holidays or maternity leave for female employees,” said Kabambe in the statement.
The Unima strike resulted in the university closing prematurely after the employees refused to return to work following discussions between representatives of the union and university management.
