Upheavals at UB over salaries

CHANDAPIWA BAPUTAKI
Staff Writer | Tuesday November 23, 2010 00:00

 

UBASSSU has indicated that they will approach management to explain these salary disparities that are in favour of the school of Medicine.

According to the President of UBASSSU Never Tshabang it 'is an insult to have the junior lecturer at the UB's School of Medicine get a salary that is at the same level as the academic Professors. It may be special treatment that they are being given for being in the science and engineering faculties.' Tshabang stated that the salary structure for the Medical Staff has been kept secret for a long time resulting in suspicion from the academic staff.

'Most of us thought that they did not want us to see how unfair the salary disparities were and that we would want to know what informed those decisions,' he said adding that 'if there were informed by the market then a new pay structure that is under negotiation must be made similar and at par with the Medical School structure. In that way the university would be more competitive to retain and attract other staff.'

In a document revealed to Mmegi the new salary scale of the Dean of Medical School is P1,318,764 against the P1,198,875 annually he was getting by April 1, 2008. The deputy Dean's annual salary is P1,047,420 while the Associate programme Director and Head of Departments is P890,256 and the Associate Programme director and Professors are getting 759,000. The assistant professor is getting P659,388, senior lecturer P552,816 while the lecturer is getting P493,356 and the Junior Lecturer is being paid P422,196 annually.

On the disgruntled academic staff side, the professors are being paid P428,532 annually while the Deans get an extra P2,000 monthly as dean allowance. The Associate Professor is being paid an annual salary of P386,436 while the Senior lecturer is being paid P353,760 and a lecturer getting an annual salary of P317,196. The Staff Development Fellow is being paid the highest notch of P167,400 annually.

However, the UB Vice Chancellor Professor Bojosi Otlhogile described the queries as a witch-hunt. He stated that the Medical School salary structure was approved in November 2007 'and that was the basis of the recruitment of all our medicals.

I should mention that there are two sections of the Medical School, the clinical and the non clinical.'  He explained that the clinical are those who are medical doctors that assist patients. 'Everywhere you go where there is a medical school they are never part of the general structure of the university. There has never been a review of their salaries since that time,' he said. He explained that the non-clinical salaries of lecturers not getting in contact with patients are at the same par with the general structure.

'I don't understand why someone would say that there were kept secret. The other time when there was a strike we revealed that the Medical doctors without PHD are being paid more than Professors. There is nothing new. Everyone knows that they are on a different structure,' Otlhogile said.

He further explained that they have always made it clear that the Clinical Staff at the Medical School would be paid more than the academic staff. 'Everyone has been aware of the fact that Professors are pitted against the government Permanent Secretaries while I am against FO who is the senior PS. The other staff's salary structure is only affected when there is the government annual salary review unless they make a separate structure. 'The new salary structures were done according to the directive from the Directorate of Public Service Management and we indicated that it will not affect the clinical staff at the Medical School as it was not a cost of living allowance because they are not pegged,' he explained.

UB staff went on a strike two months ago demanding better salaries. The issue is currently under negotiations after the union leaders and management agreed to work together on the process.