400 vacancies were not filled at the USP which concerned us - Fong

At one stage after the COVID-19 pandemic, 400 vacancies were not filled at the University of the South Pacific and this was of a great concern to the former Presidents of the Association of USP Staff, Elizabeth Fong and Doctor Tamara Osborne Naikatini.

While speaking on fijivillage Straight Talk With Vijay Narayan, Fong said the large number of unfilled positions was affecting the workload of the remaining USP staff, especially their physical and mental health.

She says there was a lot of pressure on the staff and they were raising questions as to why the vacancies were not advertised.

Furthermore, she says the Fiji Government was not giving its contribution.

However she says there was money being saved over a period of time with 400 positions vacant, so there was money accumulating to be able to fill, at least 200 positions.

Fong says the other area of concern is the lack of promotion for regional academics and professionals and they are losing people with great potential to Australia and New Zealand who are offered senior lecturer positions there.

She says gender balance is another issue they were grappling with because the charter for building women in the University is allegedly not being followed.

She says sadly, the promotions are not balanced.

Doctor Naikatini confirms members of the Association and the USP Staff Union have unanimously voted to go for a strike ballot as they want her to be reinstated and USP Vice Chancellor, Professor Ahluwalia to be removed from office.

She also confirms that she has filed a grievance of her unfair dismissal from the USP as she believes that she has not breached the University’s ordinances when raising concerns about the renewal of Professor Ahluwalia’s contract.

She says the union members have been very vocal and they see this as an attack on unions and freedom of speech at the University.

Vice Chancellor Ahluwalia was also invited to the show however the University said that he will not attend as they do not discuss personnel issues publicly.

We have sent questions to the USP and they are yet to respond.