SEM has given the green light for Lae Police to enter Unitech to arrest Academic Staff who are on strike. Academic Executives are made up of lectures who have PhDs and Masters.

Have some respect and a sense of dignity. These are the very people who educate the elites of this country. Where did all the common sense go?
This is shameful. What crime did they commit?
The management should just address the issue and get this matter sorted out. It is dragging on and students are held at ransom.

So easy to run after the small people who try to make working conditions better for themselves, their colleagues and their students. Unfortunately they do not have so much money to play around in getting court orders to stay previous rulings unlike the parliamentarians who take out court order after court order. Why don't the SEM step down and let the investigations go? That way, the students will get what they are there for, the lecturers will teach and the administration will have the allegations proven to be wrong (I hope so) and then all will be happy.
A matter of pride before the great fall in all administrations from the parliament down?
Arggggg...hat wok....kuru blo ol olsem blo kuru pis..

National Academic staff Association (NASA) haven't been doing much but having BBQs under the laulau tree on the field. However things are tense on campus. Today 08/03 the students went on the war path and locked the gates and had a open forum with the SEM & council in front of admin building and demanded the SEM to be sidelined in a petition to allow independent inquiry and for NASA to return to lectures....The students fustrated over the chancellors continuose lies and delay on addressing the issue since last week shouted down and stoned the SEM and the council in the process smashing some windows of admin building. They'll get their answer 2morrow 09/03 after lunch. Meanwhile..NASA decided to stay away from the forum because of possible inciting of students to rampage plus the court proceedings which is still in process.

On the political front, several ministers are in contact and obviously the morobe governor Luther Wenge plus the higher education minister has adviced the chancellor to sideline the SEM(Higer Education Minster cannot remove the SEM or council because uni is under a seperate parlimentary act).

Thats about all, and i'll keep you all posted

VC becoming to arrogant, his failed investment in a particular US company is a reason for him to go. I support the NASA for their tougher stand.

There seems to be a lot of cash in hand with the government.About time the lecturers are paid their due. K100m free education is quantity but we need quality. As in the mining sector the best are heading for greener pastures, in my opinion, money has to be spent to get quality service.

Anon,
I agree with you. It is logical, anybody can see that but it makes us wonder why they are so blind to this.
Just give them their entitlements and they will do their job, end of story.

On the weekend the NASA executives were arrested at 2am Saturday morning and then released on bail 8pm Saturday night. Also negotiations organised by Ombudsman Commission have come to an impasse on the issue of sidelining the SEM.According to the Council this is non-negotiable. However we agreed to atleast a week(until 19th March) to keep negotiating, thus deferring the actioning of the court order on individual members. However lastnight all NASA members resolved that we're wasting our time negotiating to a "brickwall" and have all agreed for mass resignation, unless the SEM is sidelined. The papers have already been typed and only requires signatures this morning, and this is what NASA will table to the negotiations this morning.

have a nice day.

cheers

NASA members resign en masse

By PETER KORUGL
ALL MEMBERS of the National Academic Staff have resigned en masse from their respective jobs in protest over the way they were treated by the Lae-based PNG University of Technology.
Their resignations have thrown the entire 2007 academic year into doubt.
Sixty-four members, from both the Taraka and Bulolo campuses, handed in their resignations to the university administration on Monday and yesterday handed copies to the University Council and the Office of Higher Education.
“We were forced into doing this. We want the students to understand our action and maintain calm,” Dr Loko Anota, caretaker president of NASA said.
“There is still time for the council to reconsider. There are still three more days before Monday” he said, after he and his team returned from a meeting with Ombudsman John ToGuata and Dr William Takis from the Office of Higher Education and council members.
“The NASA members have resolved to collectively and individually submit their resignations to the registrar of the PNG University of Technology effective as of 10pm, Sunday, March11.
“We therefore, request that all our severance benefits and entitlement be sorted out immediately,” the staff said in their letter.
They wrote that “regrettably the decision was based on the fact that we have lost total confidence in the current senior executive management (SEM) and the council, hence our resignation en mass.”
In the letter addressed to the registrar, they said this would have been avoided of the SEM were sidelined to allow for an independent investigation to take its course.
“We have come to realise and learn today that the SEM is part of the council. NASA’s case against the SEM not only has been downplayed but that council has employed heavy handed tactics and intimidation against NASA members and executives, which are disproportionately excessive and highly traumatising for members and their families to bear.
“This cannot be tolerated any more and enough is enough,” they explained in their letter.
The resignations affect the 13 academic departments and the distance education program run by the university.
Ten of the members have PhDs, most with masters and a few with bachelors’ degrees. All have been with Unitech for 15 years or more.
Following the mass resignation, students urged the Government to intervene and get the local academics to return to classes on Monday.
“The Government must step in, sidelined the senior management and bring the lecturers back to classes,” a student said.
The Minister for High Education David Basua last night sent a letter, congratulating the NASA members for signing the memorandum of agreement on Monday night.
Mr Basua said following the agreement, the NASA members should return to their classes.
“I never signed any agreement. The minister has been misinformed,” Dr Anota said.


www.thenational.com.pg

It seems the words - NEGOTIATION, COMPROMISE and CONSENSUS mean very little to those in authority when trying to solve industrial disputes in PNG.

Why can not the SEM just give the academics what they rightly derserve and solve the problem once and for all!

Look olsem sampla lain yah, ego blo antap tru, aburusim ol cloud too na bai clostu go into space.

Yeah, ol ting ol moa yet. SEM and those in higher authority think they are untouchable and the decisions they make is final. With the mass resignation of NASA members, looks like classes will be put on hold. I wonder what the students will do. I just hope that SEM and the higher authority come to their senses, openly apologise to NASA and the students and beg the accademics to stay on and do another favourable review.

If any of you NASA members are reading this, you guys put your lives and that of your families on the line and I salute you all for that, UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL, this is what you all are doing and it is a very bold move.
If my man was with you all, I will definitely get a heart attack.

there are 110 national lecturers in both bulolo and taraka campus, 20 on study and 64 resigned. The remaing abstained from resigning. Morals are at a all time low. I know NASA president Mr. Yowat, V/President Robert Songan, Secretary Gibson Tito personally...what they are doing is for the benefit and betterment of the university, all man of integrity...i hope the public supports...i'm also dispported in the Judges issue of new arrest notice..it makes these gentlement looking like common criminals.

NASA have just resolved to go back to classes mainly because of our 4 sidelined executives. NASA and SEM/Council Laywers will work to try dismiss the contempt of court charges next week. Council has agreed to an independent inquiry(Terms of refrence to be discussed later), apart from the Ombudsman Investigation.

cheers

Sounds like great news, its a job well done for NASA. A point was highlighted and attention is now given were it is due.

yes, they will be returning to class on monday next week.

That is Good news, I applaud the lecturers and urge the SEM to step aside.

Gutpla news. Nao ol sumatin ken go bek long class. Maybe the charges against the NASA executives should just be dropped and let the independent enquiry do their findings and put it out for the public to see.

This is the heading of a report by Pearson Kolo in today's Post Courier. The report says that the srike action by Telikom Workers, the call for 100 percent pay increase by the Trade union congress and the mass resignation of NASA members are all political power play. These are all deliberate disruptions which are all promoting interests of aliens in PNG ...blah blah blah, according to Don Polye.


Is that all he has to say? Pea brain! If only them politicians know in the first place that if they have kept politics out of these institutions and statutory bodies, they would have less problems. Why can't they just concerntrate on delivering services to their people rather than playing high and mighty. All of them are just the same, power hungry, selfish, gullible, puffed up, wayward leaders. Tingting pastaim na toktok.
Where did all the common sense go to?