‘No job losses at USP’, academic chief clarifies misinformation

Professor Pal Ahluwalia speaks to the media during a press conference in Suva today as members of the senior management team look on. Picture: WANSOLWARA

By WANSOLWARA STAFF

The University of the South Pacific’s academic chief has assured that there are no job losses or impending pay cuts in a proposed plan to restructure the institution.

Despite the existing financial challenges in recent months, USP vice-chancellor and president Professor Pal Ahluwalia said a media report about 110 possible job cuts as a result of a proposed organisational restructure was misinformation.

He said the University faced the brunt of COVID-19 like most universities in the region and restructure was vital to ensuring the continuity of quality education for students.

“There are no job losses at USP. We found ourselves at the beginning of the year that news of COVID-19 had started to come and we needed to plan quickly for what happens,” he said during a press conference at Laucala campus in Suva yesterday.

“We were faced with a lot of difficulties. We took stock and closed things down as the lockdown happened nationally. But that was a very important time to reconfigure, rethink about our students and providing them with the best possible education.”

The University was also hit with a decision by the Fijian Government to cease its remaining grant contribution until a thorough and independent investigation into all the allegations by the Pro-Chancellor and the chair Audit and Risk Committee are carried out.

“There was a reduction in the overall grant of about $21million and that has affected us but more than that, it’s been COVID-19,” Prof Ahluwalia said.

“We knew we needed to make the University financially sustainable so we have managed by not investing in any strategic priorities or dealing with our capex funding. To go forward, we had to make savings.”

The savings plan for USP included school restructure, which would save $3.6m, another $3m from Pacific TAFE and $8.7m in savings from non-academic restructure – totaling $15.2m.

Some of these savings measures included reduction in annual leave for staff from 25 days to 10 days, resulting in a savings of $4.6m, reduction in contributions to superannuation (a temporary measure), halt to salary adjustments, rewards, increments or pay increases.

All members of the senior management team, except one, volunteered to take a 5% pay cut, 5% cut in contributions to FNPF and a 5% cut in annual leave days.

According to USP’s executive director finance Kolinio Boila, the $15m savings from the reorganization would sustain the University moving forward.

“The university is basically absorbing this through other forms of savings internally but we were not able to sustain this annually for every year going forward, that’s why reorganization is necessary at this point in time,” Mr Boila said.

“There are about 90 academic positions and we don’t know where the 110 came from but there are 116 staff – 90 plus 26 in the current structure of the University that are not academic in nature, that are in the faculties.

“Out of that 116, we will need at least 66 positions in the new structure so those jobs will stay. There will be 47 jobs that will possibly be floating around so every will still keep their jobs unless they resign or retire and that’s our definition of attrition.

“So 47 jobs in different categories will move into a non-academic function but we have about $5m worth of jobs in a non-academic function that are vacant.”

He said they would not be advertising new jobs because of the impact of COVID-19 and would retain the 47 jobs while working to finalise the budget for next year.

The restructure meant they were not losing jobs but rather refocusing and retraining staff to fit within the University’s structure.

Association of The University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) newly-elected president Elizabeth Reade-Fong said when anyone spoke about restructure minds immediately turned to jobs.

“AUSPS and the USP Staff Union are are aware of what staff are feeling and our stand for workers rights, In this entire situation, we believe that the rights of our staff have been maintained and protected and these are being protected through the prudence of our VC,” she said.

“His financial management, consultations and discussions have reassured us that he has the welfare of the institution especially staff and students at heart.”

Meanwhile, the Fijian Government had budgeted a grant contribution of $27.6m for USP for the current financial year.

It is understood the grants for the first and second quarter had been paid while funding for the third and fourth quarters were withheld until allegations against the VC and other USP staff were addressed.