University Non-Teaching Staff, First Lady Fail To Agree  As Public Universities Remain Closed

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University non-teaching staff remain helpless despite meeting the first lady.

Janet Museveni failed to convince Universities non-teaching staff and they vowed to remain on strike.

The meeting which was called by Minister of Education and Sports, Janet Museveni and her counterpart, the minister of finance and planning, Matia Kasaija, hit a deadlock after they failed to convince non-teaching staff from public universities to call off their strike.

According to government, there is no money to pay Shs56 billion demanded by the public servants by enhancing their salaries.

This includes Shs28 billion to raise their pay and Shs28billion of salary arrears promised by President Yoweri Museveni last year.

The education minister tried to defend herself by saying she is just two months in office thereby requesting the staff to return for work as she looks into their matter, something that didn’t convince the non-teaching staff.

The minister for finance and accounting, Matia Kasaija tried to convince the members when he assured them that their issue will be handled in the supplementary budget of this financial year since it wasn’t included in this year’s financial budget, but they insisted on having an instant response from government.

The chairman of the association Jackson Betihamah said, no one will return to work not until the president’s promise of enhancing their salaries is fulfilled.

He however said, they will have an internal meeting to decide what they will do next.

Public Universities remain closed and reporting dates are expected to be re-postponed if the agreement is not reached by the end of this week.