It’s going to be a relatively fallow discussion—by Uganda’s standards at least—as Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) Chairperson Sylvia Nabatanzi insists that money for salary increment for staff in public universities should be shared equally.
Nabatanzi says that the best practice for sharing salary increment is that each member gets equal share rather than certain staff taking higher percentages than others. She says even when money is shared equally, lowest paid staff in a public university can’t reach salary of highest paid staff since they are in different salary scales.
Public Universities support staff are on strike protesting what they call unfair distribution of funds meant for salary enhancement for this financial year. The support staff are accusing their colleagues in administrative positions of allocating themselves a higher percentage of the money. The Ministry of Finance released 19.6 billion Shillings this financial year for salary enhancement for teaching and non-teaching staff in public universities.
However, administrative staff have rejected demands by support staff that money be shared equally.
Nabatanzi argues that even if there is disparity in percentages of salary increment, it should not be huge.
The public universities support staff are expected to call of their strike after reaching a compromise with government to pay this year’s salary enhancement as arrears in the 2018/2019 Financial Year.
