The contracts of 247 Technical College of Fiji staff will expire at the end of this year as they are on temporary contracts and FNU’s Acting Vice-Chancellor, Doctor William May has also stated that there is no guarantee that staff whose contracts would expire beyond 2020 would be taken back. Doctor May says the decision to re-engage staff by offering a new contract would depend on the demand for the programmes provided by technical college.
The Acting Vice-Chancellor says they have received only 2 applications so far for technical programmes.
Responding to Fiji Teachers Confederation Secretary-General, Agni Deo Singh comments where he had said that the University had lied, Dr. May says the extra funding does not solve the fundamental issues that we need to review the technical college and the main issues at hand that they need to address are the quality and the relevance of the technical college programmes.
Speaking at the Confederation Meeting at the FTA Hall, Suva Campus teacher, Rosalia Mokunitulevu says she is the only person earning for her family as her husband has retired.
She says she has two children in high school and this decision will definitely affect them and it will be like cutting off their air supply.
The Fiji Teachers Confederation says they are considering to take legal action against the sudden notice of termination of contracts of the technical college staff.
Members of the Fiji Teachers Confederation met yesterday where a working group has been set up to make decisions on the steps they will be taking.
Agni Deo Singh says some of the staff signed a one year contract with FNU when the university took over the operations of the technical colleges from the Education Ministry and this one year contract does not recognise the service that they have provided by not offering the redundancy package considering their years of service
He says the staff had legitimate expectations that there will be a continuation of work for them because the closure of the colleges in this manner was never expected and it has come as a shock to them.
Technical College of Fiji has a total of 323 staff, of which 179 are teaching and 144 are non-teaching staff.
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