UCSF revamp, no pay cuts

Shafie

KOTA KINABALU: Chief Minister Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal has ordered the University College Sabah Foundation (UCSF) to revamp its management after it planned to slash the salaries of its workers and retrench some of them.

Shafie also ordered the financially troubled university owned by the Sabah Foundation, to retain its staff and pay their salaries in full.

“I have instructed State Secretary Datuk Safar Untong to follow up on the matter immediately, including retaining the staff and ensuring full payment of salaries for the workers.

“I don’t want salaries to be cut or the jobs to be terminated. I want this resolved. I also want to revamp the administration’s management to ensure it is run well,” he told reporters after receiving medical supply donations from several companies to the state government, including the KTS Group which donated 10,000 Covid-19 test kits.

UCSF is halving the staff salaries and possibly laying off hundreds as it struggles to deal with a sharp drop in student intake due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Its vice-chancellor, Mohamed Haleem Mohamed Razi, said in a memo that these were part of cost-cutting measures in light of a plunge in intake for the April semester.

Under the cost-cutting scheme, staff will be subject to a 50% pay cut with working hours reduced to 20 per week.

If by September there has been no improvement in the university’s financial status, the number of active staff will be reduced to a minimum in order for it to stay afloat.

The Sabah Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) on Tuesday said the staff had never agreed to their gross salary being cut, contending it was deliberately decided by the management without prior consultation.

Yesterday, some of the UCSF staff told the Borneo Post that the 50 per cent pay cut will bring about a devastating impact, especially considering the fact that some of them are in the B40 group.

“How can you impose a 50 per cent pay cut when some of the staff are only earning RM1,200? If you cut it half, they will only be left with RM600, plus EPF deductions,” said Ahmad Omar Khan and his colleagues claimed that they had never agreed to take the pay cut, an issue that has been making rounds in the newspapers for the past several days.

He claimed that a number of those working in UCSF are earning less than RM2,500 per month.

“I pity one of our staff. He can’t pay for his rent and his wife is back in his hometown. He now has to move out and find a new place to stay,” Ahmad lamented.

“It’s not that we want to go against them, we just want to claim our rights” he added.

In a statement on Monday, the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) Sabah Division claimed that the pay cut was a decision that was made without proper consultation.

It was alleged that the staff had only received the memo after the decision was made.

Ahmad further revealed that the staff had not received any increment for the past three years.

He said that just last month; four of his colleagues in the marketing department had been sacked.

“They (the management) claimed that they would have to wait for the September intake for them to assess the financial situation. But the thing is, how are they supposed to bring in more students if there are now only three employees in the marketing department?” he asked.

Ahmad explained that the pay cut issue had also inadvertently affected the students as some of the lecturers, who are teaching final-year students, were let go.

UCSF, which was established in 2013, is a subsidiary of Sabah Foundation, a state government-linked company. It has close to 200 staff with 400 students presently enrolled.

The post UCSF revamp, no pay cuts appeared first on Borneo Post Online.

from Borneo Post Online https://bit.ly/2VCir1c
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