KINGSTON, Jamaica — The strike by unionised academic staff members at the University of Technology (UTech) is continuing into a second week, with lecturers staying out of the classrooms while negotiations continue between the management of the institution and the University of Technology Academic Staff Union (UTASU ) today.

Meetings between the two have been ongoing since Friday when the Ministry of Education, in making what it said was its last offer, pulled back from the negotiating table after UTASU rejected its proposal. A second proposal is however being hammered out between the university and the union.

Following a meeting last Thursday, the ministry proposed to pay staff $400 million of the funds owed to them for 2018/19 pledging $250 million from its existing budget while the remaining $150 million would be funded by UTech.

The $400 million is in addition to $1 billion approved for the university in the supplementary estimates approved earlier in October. That was however rejected by UTASU on Friday afternoon.

The more than 500 unionised staff members pulled their services a week ago after the Government failed to honour a commitment to pay over a portion of retroactive monies owed to them last month under the 2015/17 heads of agreement.

Alicia Dunkley