Makerere University teaching staff are threatening to go on strike after the university management informed them that they will not be receiving their monthly allowances beginning in July, much to their chagrin.
Through their joint staff associations, Makerere University Academic Staff Association (MUASA) and Makerere University Administrative Staff Association (MASA), the staff said that they noticed an unusual cut in salaries for the month. According to the staff, they sought clarification from the University management but were advised that their stipend had been redirected to non-pensionable and clinical allowances.
Yusuf Kiranda, the Accounting Officer to the university, said that the letter that was written on June 26th, 2023, addressing the leadership of the academic and support staff, the university secretary, in regard to the move to abolish the allowances of the teaching staff from the payroll, was a decision from the government.
“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,” Kiranda stated.
Kiranda clarified that the Ministry of Finance had directed that the university use the allowances from the teaching staff for staff promotion.
According to Dr. Robert Kakuru, the Chairperson of the MUASA, 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, and the Ministry of Finance gave the University a green light to use the allowances for staff promotion,” said Kakuru.
According to Kakuru, the figures demonstrate that a total of 1674 out of 3,366 staff members were receiving the aforementioned allowances, which cost the university Shs3.4 billion annually in non-pensionable and clinical allowances.