The staff of the University of Bahr el Ghazal in Wau Town on Tuesday threatened to close down the institution in the event the National Ministry of Finance fails to clear their 11 months’ salary arrears.
The decision followed a meeting of the University Workers Union and lectures on Tuesday morning during which they demanded payment of their arrears, including medical and air ticket allowances.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj after the meeting, the workers’ union chairperson, Robia Adam Hamed, said the university may close down if the National Ministry for Finance fails to pay them within seven days from Tuesday.
“We have gone 11 months without salaries and this is why we decided not to tolerate more than this because the current economic situation has affected us,” said Adam. “We conducted a meeting and came out with a certain resolution indicating that we are demanding the ministry of finance 11 months, flight tickets, and at the same time we are demanding our medical allowances.”
The threat to strike comes ahead of the reopening of the university with students set to return from holidays.
“The lecturers will not be able to walk to the university to teach if the institution opens,” Adam warned. “We need the government to calculate this before the university reopens in November because due to the current economic situation, lectures did not mark the last examinations and I do not think lecturers will resume work.”
“If the government does not address these issues, we will close down the university totally and see what will happen next and we have given them only seven days,” he concluded.
University of Bahr el Ghazal is among the public universities whose staff has often gone on strike due to delayed salary payments.