'We are past talking, it's time for action'

Staff unions at the University of the South Pacific have staged a strike action - their second protest in as many months - in response to what they say is the premier regional institution dragging its heels on workers' grievances.

More than 100 academics and administration employees stopped work on Friday in protest against the "ongoing leadership at the university".

The entrance to the University of the South Pacific's main campus in Suva. Photo/USP

Both the USP Staff Union and the Association of USP Staff (AUSPS) have expressed "deep dissatisfaction" following the outcome of the recent USP Special Council meeting, which "misleadingly framed serious grievances as mere HR issues to be investigated rather than investigating the Vice-Chancellor and President".

The USP spans 12 Pacific countries, linking students from Micronesia, Polynesia, and Melanesia. Its graduates include many of the Pacific's prime ministers, presidents, and high-profile officials.

The USP receives generous funding from New Zealand and Australia.

USP Staff Union secretary Ilima Finiasi says they have been raising their concerns for months regarding the VCP Professor Pal Ahluwalia’s management of the university.

He says the unions wrote to the council detailing their concerns about Ahluwalia's performance in November and calling for his removal.

"While the unions respectfully waited for the Special Council to act, the outcome from the Secretariat is ambiguous and fails to honestly reflect the core issue - VCP’s leadership is running the university into the ground," Finiasi says.

"It has now been almost four weeks since the Special Council 2024 meeting and the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the independent investigation have yet to be finalised.

"The Council Secretariat, which reports directly to the VCP, has failed to move the process forward, raising concerns about deliberate manipulation to stall the investigation."

Ahluwalia has been embroiled in controversy since his appointment in 2018.

Once popular with his staff, Professor Pal Ahluwalia is facing allegations of poor management and is being urged to go by staff unions. Photo/USP

He was harassed and deported in 2021 after exposing mismanagement at the university.

Ahluwalia discovered that staff had worrying tales of deeply rooted corruption, financial mismanagement, and questionable appointments.

Staff and students rallied in support of their VCP, holding protests across the Suva campus and calling on the council to reinstate Ahluwalia.

But three years later, things have changed for the worse. Why?

"When Pal came, he sort of exposed what we have been trying to expose," Finiasi says. "While we have been supporting Pal, actually we were supporting good governance. The questions we were raising then were all governance issues. So we needed someone to empower them.

"But you know, that's 2019, 2020, 2021, there was Covid. So the university hasn't seen real Pal leadership, we haven't seen his real potential. So when all these disturbances fell, we get to see that he's not up for the job.

USP staff stage a strike action in Suva. Photo/AUSPS

"He forgot, he has forgotten about the people who stood by him, stood by the institution."

In February, staff threatened strike action with Finiasi saying they gave management a chance to come to the negotiating table.

In March, the Association of USP Staff (AUSPS) cast a secret ballot where 63 per cent of its members voted in favour of strike action.

Finiasi said management had refused to negotiate salary adjustments and that is why staff agreed to strike.

He said staff missed out on salary adjustments in 2019 and 2022.

The USP says it gave staff a two per cent pay rise in October 2022, January 2023, and January this year.

Photo/University of Auckland

It said it received the outcome of the secret ballot strike action and was engaged in the process with AUSPS and USPSU.

But Finiasi says they are done talking. "It's time for action."

• Meanwhile, the University of Auckland is also facing its second strike in a month. Up to 1500 tertiary education members protested for around four hours on Friday over failed negotiations for better pay.

Organisers say the university has been too slow to address their demands.

Protesters were largely academic and professional staff.

However, they were joined by union members covered by the University of Auckland's security and gardeners in medical academic collective agreements.

The tertiary education union says they voted to strike in ballots that closed on Tuesday after medical academic staff were asked to give up a one-off retirement payment for future staff.

Photo/Manawatu Standard