The government has issued a second ultimatum to fire all striking teachers from public schools by the close of business on Tuesday, June 28, 2022.
The stern warning from the Minister for Local Government Raphael Magyezi was delivered on Monday during a sensitization meeting on the Parish Development Model in the greater Mbarara.
While meeting local government leaders from the region Magyezi said the government is set to throw out the old lot of teachers and advertise for fresh ones, if they fail to show up in class today.
“We have resolved that all those that will not have returned to class by Tuesday, will have absconded from duty henceforth, sacked and their jobs will be advertised,” he said.
Magyezi further explained that they have already issued directives to all district Chief Administrative Officers(CAO), District Education Officers(DEO), District Inspector of schools(DIG), sub-county and parish chiefs to do a follow up.
“By Tuesday evening, submit the teachers to my ministry for further management, including advertising these positions.”he said
Last week, the government ordered the striking teachers under Uganda National Teachers Union-UNATU, to return to their duty stations by June 24 without fail or risk being scrapped off the payrolls.
The message was addressed in a letter to the teachers by the Public Service Ministry Permanent Secretary, Catherine Bitarakwate Musingwiire .
In her letter, Bitarakwate notes that whereas teachers, just like all other government employees, have rights and freedoms to withdraw their labor, the union neither gave the government notice of the strike nor exhausted the dispute settlement mechanisms as required by the public service negotiating, consultative and dispute settlement Machinery Act.
“The claim that the strike had been ongoing since 2019 and hence there was no need for a new notice is both fallacious and not legally tenable. Secondly, we have noticed with concern that you and your members have decided to close schools. We wish to advise you that no teacher; whether on strike or not, has a right or justification to close a public school,” the June 22, 2022 letter reads in part.
The UNATU leadership however notes that this is a continuation of their strike that was suspended in 2019 when the government promised to work on their demands agreed upon during the collective bargaining agreement signed in 2018.
The current strike resulted from the government’s decision to increase the pay for science teachers nearly by 300 percent in disregard of their colleagues in arts and humanities.
The increment saw the government increase the pay for graduate and grade V science teachers to Shillings 4 million and Shillings 3 million up from Shillings 1.1 million and Shillings 796,000 respectively.
