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By Alexander Rheeney in Apia
Disgruntled workers on the College of South Pacific (USP) are demanding the USP Council decide on the relocation of the vice-chancellor, Professor Pal Ahluwalia, to Fiji from Samoa.
The calls for from the USP workers coincide with the college’s two-day 96th council meeting on the Laucala campus’s Japan ICT Constructing earlier this week.
In an e-mail that was despatched to regional media final Friday, together with the Samoa Observer, the workers stated they had been “up in arms” over the choice by the college’s pro-chancellor to dam a submission from the workers to the agenda of the council’s assembly.
“The paper is in response to the choice of the Might 2023 USP Council (C95) assembly the place its consideration was drawn to the numerous unresolved points confronted by the workers over the interval 2021 to Might 2023 and a few earlier, regardless of conferences of the workers coverage committee and SMT/union quarterly conferences that are chaired by VCP [vice-chancellor and president],” learn the assertion issued by the college workers.
“College administration solely discovered it mandatory to answer points when the Affiliation of USP Employees (AUSPS) filed a log of claims in October 2023. The VCP then appointed the chief working officer and the manager director individuals and workforce technique to have interaction with the union.”
In response to the USP workers, two conferences had been held to answer the choice of the Might Council for the college administration and the unions to work collectively to handle the problems and to report and replace the November (C96) council.
A paper was then submitted for the November 2023 council agenda containing updates on resolved and unresolved points in response to the council’s resolution and new points which have come to mild since C95.
Paper ‘can’t be tabled’
Nevertheless, the workers stated that on November 20 the secretary to the council knowledgeable the council workers consultant that the pro-chancellor and chair of the council had directed him to tell her that after reviewing the paper, “it can’t be tabled on the 96th council assembly” as a result of “the problems raised therein aren’t for council to deliberate on”.
![University of the South Pacific protesting in black](https://asiapacificreport.nz/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/USP-protest-AUSPS-680wide.png)
They added that the pro-chancellor had directed that these be labored on with the USP administration.
“She didn’t acknowledge that the paper contained responses to Might council resolution and that there are points such because the wage adjustment that the administration has refused to debate or negotiate on.
“PC [pro-chancellor] then proceeded to state that the council doesn’t take care of issues of wage adjustment. Precedent has been set the place the council has authorized wage changes.”
Fiji’s nationwide broadcaster FBC on Tuesday reported that the president of AUSPS, Elizabeth Learn Fong, had questioned why Professor Ahluwalia continued to stay in Samoa regardless of the Fiji authorities lifting the ban that the previous Fijian authorities had positioned on him.
Fong reportedly stated that the logical alternative could be for the college’s vice-chancellor and president to return to his workplace on the principal headquarters of the USP in Laucala Bay, Suva, and appealed to the Samoa authorities to facilitate the discharge of the vice-chancellor.
She stated the regional college continued to spend so much on Professor Ahluwalia’s journey and lodging bills each time he travelled to Suva from Samoa.
The Samoa Observer has contacted the USP vice-chancellor for touch upon the considerations that the USP workers members have raised.
Many USP workers wearing black protested for 2 days over their grievances with the vice-chancellor.
Alexander Rheeney is editor of the Samoa Observer. Republished with permission.
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