Government has indicated that it may engage the University of Zambia Lecturers and Researchers Union (UNZALARU) in the bargaining process to increase the offer above the four percent which the lecturers have rejected.
Education minister John Phiri has since called on UNZALARU to call off the go-slow as the bargaining process will resume immediately.
He has stated that the stand-off between the UNZA Council and UNZALARU is unnecessary and was premature.
He says the negotiation process should have been allowed to continue while discussions continued with stakeholders such as the ministry of education.
Dr. Phiri explains that in order to facilitate productive negotiations, the ministry of education has engaged the ministry of finance and national planning to consider supporting the University of Zambia bridge the current budget deficit of 21.4 billion kwacha.
He says the UNZA Council could be assisted by the finance ministry to increase the offer to the Union in the bargaining process from the instructed four percent.
Dr Phiri has further revealed that the ministry of finance has since responded positively to such negotiations.
He says the ministry understands the predicament public universities are in because of past government policies.
Dr. Phiri stated that the Patriotic Front government is committed to addressing such challenges.
QFM
This is what should be coming from a responsible government. Dr. Phiri understands unza very well since he was there. He is different from Lungwangwa who cd threaten his former colleagues.
Why increase the Lecturer’s salaries when the University is in shambles and closed half the academic year?
Govt. please do some grassroot thinking for a change.
Listening government nt chi rupiah
This makes perfect sense. #2, there is a lot that needs to be done to the institution & one of them is to motivate the teaching staff and researchers.
Your chance to ask RB about the whereabouts of Henry
You are Invited… – Saturday April 28th, 2012
Meet Former President Banda 2pm-4pm African Presidential Center, Boston University, 141 Bay State Road Boston, MA 02215
#5, Henry is in South Africa, no point asking what is alreadyin the public domain…thats common knowledge. i hope you have other intelligent questions to ask.
This a step in the right direction. Nubian Princess, a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. Lets learn to give credit were it is due. At least this government has shown commitment to addressing challenges at UNZA.
this situation should never hasd taken place in the 1st place……we need to move from being reactionist to being proactive
The only thing I nod is that those salaries at UNZA are a joke compared to SA, Botswana, Namibia etc but the Lecturers should also respond by being productive. Not those stupid rural politics exhibited by many of them. 75 % of them do not even know what research means. The number of academic positions is so minute that everyone esp. most but not all senior lectrurers are busy fighting for them like rural *****s, infact thats what some of them are. The Bar at senior staff is used as a drinking hall from 8 am to 10 pm by quite a few of them. Now what contribution is that to national development? There are problems that the country is facing that can easily be sorted out by UNZA if the lecturers and researchers were serious. The school of engineering can design a tram system to run par
parallel to major roads in big cities, this would ease transport and decongest the cities. The school of natural sciences, which is dead by the way yet some of them saw it growing (sic) could be involved in developing new ways of preserving foods in conjunction with the school of engineering and agriculture eg Kapenta, should we continue drying kapenta on sand yet they can design mordern driers that use nitrogen in the packages. A nshima cooking machine, these days we are still using sticks to make nshima and yet the school of engineering, natural sciences and agric can design an automated machine for such and save our mothers from unnecessary work using sticks. Many more can be achieved if people threw away stupid politics and focussed on what they were trained to do.
GK you are absolutely wrong, misinformed and an outright misfit and ***** who fails to apply simple logic and reflection. I know you are an UNZA product and positioned where you are coz of UNZA and Zambian education. Be sincere. If at all you are at an SDA university where the staff canteen opens at 19:00hours you better go to Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard, Manchester, or any other normal university. Lecturers mingle and drink the way they want. Do not expose your understanding of education from a local point of view. I want to urge you to regard UNZA withthe respect it deserves. The fact that you are somewhere where UNZA standards cannot be compared does not mean that we are useless. All lecturers at UNZA have the potential to research and most of them have done so. Be real my dear
GK, you should stop dreaming. I know are an unemployed chap and if not you have no idea about governments in the world operate. You are talking about stoping using cooking sticks so that we use machines. Do you have this in your home? Why do people the world over continue using and eating using the same intensils. Who told you that mothers are complaining?
75% of lecturers do not know research?
The canteen is open from 8 to 10 pm?
How do you know?
By the way what time does your junior canteen close at your local and barbaric college?
@GK, learn to appreciate unza,thoz guys work under very difficult conditions.dere r just few lunatics like austin mboozi