Teachers dismiss government’s pay raise, issue ultimatum
A teacher conducts a lesson at St Andrews Church of Uganda Primary School in Mbalala, Mukono District. FILE PHOTO
What you need to know:
- The State Minister for Higher Education, Dr Chrysostom Muyingo, has said: “Because of the limited resources, the size of the envelope can only allow us to increase our employees’ salaries in phases. We have started somewhere. Depending on how much the Treasury has collected, we will be able to cover everybody. Our teachers should not get worried. We have a plan for everybody.”
Kampala. Government employees have dismissed the salary increment that has been approved by the Cabinet as discriminatory and does not match their demands.
Responding to the story this newspaper broke yesterday, the government workers said the salary increment is selective and must be rejected.
Mr Zadock Tumuhimbise, the Uganda National Teachers’ Union (Unatu) chairperson, said the pleasing salaries for a section of civil servants poses a threat to service delivery in public institutions.
He said it is wrong for government to consider only a group of civil servants for pay raise while excluding others. He warned that if the government is not ready to take care of all its workers, they should halt the process until everyone has been considered.
Mr Tumuhimbise said the union has government up to June 23 to reconsider their position or else the teachers down their tools.
“If the increment is to be there, it should be across the board. Science teachers are already getting 30 per cent. We gave public service our proposals in February. We are surprised that our positions were not considered. We don’t know what their interests are. If no position is given, we shall put down our tools. The primary teachers you are ignoring build foundation for those science teachers you are singing about,” Mr Tumuhimbise warned.
Ms Margaret Rwabushaija, the workers representative in Parliament and the former Unatu chairperson, has condemned the pay raise, calling it a complete disaster, which must be rejected.
“We will not accept because it’s unfair for government to start a method of selective salary enhancement. Some of them are going to get more salaries than their head teachers, the teacher is getting two million and fifty thousand shillings and the person supervising you is getting two million shillings, are we serious? What are we doing because that means that the teachers of arts will get demotivated and give up.”
“That is selective and creates a social divide and is extremely unfair. What increment is that? Did people just wake up and just give salaries according to what they think? What criteria did they use? What are the scales for? It is unfair and I condemn it in the strongest terms,” she said.
Dr Fauz Kavuma, the spokesperson of Uganda Medical Association, said though the figures are less than what they had proposed, they will accept it. He, however, said the battle is not over.
