Mak lecturers threaten to strike over monthly allowances
Makerere University teaching staff have threatened to go on strike after the university management abolished their monthly allowances.
A source said the university management notified staff that they will not be receiving their monthly allowances effective July, drawing outrage from the dons.
According to a June 26 letter addressed to the leadership of the academic and support staff, the university secretary, Yusuf Kiranda says the move to abolish the allowances from the payroll was a decision from the government.
Kiranda, says the university introduced non-pensionable allowances for all academic staff from teaching assistants to professors and administrative staff from the M4 scale upward in 2008.
He however adds that the Ministry of Finance has given the university a green light to use the allowances for staff promotion.
According to the Chairperson of the Makerere University Academic Staff Association, Dr. Robert Kakuru, the staff will meet next week to forge a way forward.
The university also introduced clinical allowances for a section of the staff in the Faculty of Medicine, current College of Health Sciences.
This was after the staff went on strike in the same year demanding a pay rise to a living wage,
According to Mr Kiranda, the Ministry of Finance has given the University a green light to use the allowances for staff promotion.
According to statics, a total of 1674 out of 3,366 staff were earning the above allowances amounting to Shs3.4 billion annually which was incurred by the university spending on non-pensionable and clinical allowances.
