Archive for month: August, 2019

Kampala, Uganda: High Court sitting in Kampala on Friday finally set a date for passing verdict over the case between the Uganda Transport Cooperative Union (UTCU) and its thirteen former employees after more than 7 years in court.

On Friday, sitting at TWED Towers along Kafu road, presiding judge Justice Musa Ssekaana received the last presentation of evidence, and set 13th Dec 2019 as the date for delivering judgment.

In 2011, the plaintiffs, through their lawyers Lukwago & Co. Advocates filed civil suit No.139 of 2011 at the High court in Kampala, in which they allege that on 2nd Nov 2009, the defendant (UTCU) terminated their services and issued a general retirement notice to them, but consequently failed to pay them their full terminal benefits.

The thirteen, who had worked as employees of UTCU for more than 20 years between 1987 and March 2010 also fault the Union for failure to provide them with several other employee entitlements including annual leave, salary increment of up to 15%, medical insurance, and failure to remit their contributions to the National Social Security Fund, as prescribed in their employment contracts.

In an interview with theCooperator, Annet Kanyago, the Counsel for the complainants argued that the Union violated the rights of his clients – Byabagambi Deogratiuos, James Peter Etwou, Byamugisha Henry, Nkunge Daudi, Anniset Mpoza Sempa and Ronald Nsubuga. Others are Aggrey Lubwama, Kananura Obah, James Kyamanyi, Blassy Matovu, Jacob Suda, Anthony Mudekete and Gerald Kiiza.

Gerald Kiiza, in particular, avers that he sustained an injury during the course of his employment at UTCU which led to permanent damage to his left eye. He argues that he is now unable to acquire alternative employment and seeks Shs.2.3 million in compensation.

However, in a written defense submitted to court on 21st July 2011 by its lawyers AYIGIHUGU & CO. ADVOCATES, the Union referred to the compensation claim by Gerald Kiiza as “very strange.” “The defendant (UTCU) paid all his medical claims during the course of his employment after clearance with its clinic,” the statement reads in part.

The Union also denies the rest of the charges and insists they met their end of obligations to the complainants. “The defendant denies that the plaintiffs have suffered any inconvenience or been subjected to untold suffering. No notice of intention to sue was served. The defendant prays that the suit be dismissed with costs,” UCTU argued in its final defense statement.

In their concluding statement, the complainants, on the other hand,

asked court to, in addition to the costs of the legal fees “and any other relief that court deems fit and just,” award them special damages and general damages to the tune of Shs.131 million.

When contacted for comment, UCTU’s lawyer Denis Kwizera declined, saying the case is coming to an end and that they would wait for the ruling in December.

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Pader, Uganda: In 2002, as the LRA insurgency raged on in Northern Uganda, 6 women decided to come together to form a self-help group, as a way of coping with the dire conditions at the time. The women – Abalo Okello Leonora, Florence Komakech, Suzan Anyango Owile, Rose Latoo Lamwaka, Margret Lalam, and Eromina Odong, then involved in shear-nut harvesting, formed among themselves the Shear Butter and Agro-processing Women’s Group, determined to add value to their trade.

Shear butter is rich in vitamin A, E, and F, and can be of medicinal value to people suffering from ulcers. It can also be used as cooking oil and smearing jerry for both children and adults. It is these products that the 6 women hoped to produce, and tap into the local demand for Moya, a delicacy in Acholi.

There was one problem though: They were still enclosed in t h e Internally Displaced People’s Camps (IDPs), and could not go to the bushes on their own to access shear-nut trees. “We had to rely on the UPDF for security as we went out to access the shear-nut trees,” one of the women told me.

The group survived the LRA insurgency and has now grown to incorporate 1000 women as members. The group chairperson, Ms. Abalo Okello attributes the success of the group to the necessity of its mission. “We formed the group to support each other to be able to provide for our families. And since many women had become breadwinners of their families after the death of their husbands in the war, this group was helping them to cope,” she said.

In 2017, the group was boosted with Shs. 9.7 million under the Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme (UWEP) and Abalo says it was a game-changer: “At the time UWEP came in, we were struggling to keep the initiative going but as we talk now, we have been able to have better machines. Although they(machines) are still manual, they’ve given us a big push,’’ she says.

Production Process

The seeds fall by themselves to the ground and are collected in baskets and taken for processing. The Women then use the manual machines to get the oils out of the shear-nuts. On a monthly basis, they make between 10-20 jerry cans of well-processed Shear Oils.

The containers of shear oils are then packed and sold to the local market, especially the smearing oil. The prices range from Shs. 2,000- Shs.15, 000 per container, while a 20 litter jerry can go for Shs.400, 000. In a month, Abalo says, the group can sell between 5-6 jerry cans of the shear oils.

One of the beneficiaries, Ajulian Ayaa, says that a more productive group has led to the stabilization of homes, because women are also able to bring something to the table: “For many women, their lives have changed, and in homes, you find that violence is no more because what a man in the house cannot provide, a woman can have it in place,” she says.

Ayaa says they have now become agents of development in the district, reaching out to other women to embrace government programs aimed at uplifting women financially.

The group has so far been able to pay back Shs.1.7million of their loan, and hope to have completed its full repayment by the end of this year to be able to qualify for another loan.

Now, Abalo says, the group intends to register as a cooperative, to be able to have their products consumed outside Uganda too. In the meantime, they plan to open outlets in each district to expand their market.

Challenges

The Focal Person UWEP Pader District, David Oketch, says that although the women are progressively becoming self-reliant, the group still needs the support in terms of getting better machines to extract oil out of the shear-nuts. “What they have(machines) are manual and as they get older, some member cannot manage to operate them for long,” he said.

He also pointed out the insufficient exposure of the group, arguing that they could learn more from interaction with other business enterprises elsewhere.

The women also have trouble accessing markets. Transporting raw materials to the processing plant and finished products to the market is difficult, especially when they get orders from other parts of the country.

The biggest worry for them though is the challenge of deforestation. As Pader and the neighboring districts’ urban centers expand, the locals are encroaching on existing vegetation, cutting down trees, and the shear-nut trees have been no exception.

In response, Abalo says, the women are coming up with an initiative to protect these trees. “These trees are very important not just for our business, but also for our health. since the products are also medicinal,’’ she added.

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Makerere University academic staff have threatened to lay down their tools ahead of the new semester, in protest of the government’s failure to honor a presidential pledge to increase their salaries.

Speaking to the press on Wednesday last week barely days after the University opened for the new academic year, the acting Chairperson of the Makerere University Academic Staff Association(MUASA) Prof. Edward Nector Mwavu said that his colleagues would stay home until the government addresses their concerns.

The move follows a similar call by the Forum for Academic Staff for Public Universities (FASPU) and the Public Universities Non-Teaching Staff Executive Forum (PUNTSEF). In a joint letter dated August 2nd, the professional associations called upon their members to undertake industrial action. “This is further to reaffirm that you stay at home until our concerns are addressed by government,” the letter reads in part.

The staff accuse the government of reneging on a presidential commitment to progressively increase the salaries of academic staff across all public universities over a 5- year period, the end of which a Professor would earn Shs.15million.

The agreement was reached between President Museveni and the academic staff from all public universities following a similar industrial strike in 2014 before the lecturers agreed to resume teaching.

Now, Mwavu says that the government must rededicate itself towards evaluating the performance of the salary enhancement Scheme. Currently, a non-Science professor earns a gross salary of Shs.8.5 million, Shs.6.5 million shy of the targeted Shs.15million, yet the 5year implementation period of the salary enhancement scheme ended in July this year.

In the just began financial year, the government set aside Shs.15 billion towards salary raise for both teaching and Non-teaching staff in public Universities, but Prof. Mwavu insists that’s “peanuts,” weighed against staff expectations. “Shs.15 billion is a lot of money in figures, but when you try to distribute it across all the Public Universities, it means that a person who was supposed to move from Shs.8.5 million to Shs.15 million might only move to Shs.8.8 million,” he told theCooperator.

He argued that at this rate (Shs.15billion each financial year), it would take the government up to ten years to achieve the commitment made by the president. That, coupled with inflation, and the fact that more hitherto unplanned staff are coming into the payroll means that there is no significant benefit to staff, says Mwavu.

“Last financial year, we received a total of Shs.58 billion for all Public Universities but the staff members who got the highest enhancement received about Shs. 600,000 only. What about Shs.15 billion spread across all public Universities! What will each staff get?” Prof. Mwavu asked.

The Makerere University Chancellor Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe has however called upon the staff to resume work with the new semester, as negotiations continue with the government. The semester resumed on August 3rd with the reporting of First-year students, while the continuing students report today.

Last year, learning at the university came to a standstill for nearly a month as lecturers demanded unpaid arrears from the government worth over Shs. 29 billion. Prof. Mwavu called upon the government to avoid the reoccurrence of a similar scenario this time, arguing that they(Staff) had raised the alarm as early as possible to allow the government to consider their plea in time.

The post MUASA demands government stick to salary promise, or risk strike appeared first on The Cooperator News.

Arua, Uganda: Teachers in West Nile sub-region have appealed to the government to consider paying them according to their qualifications.

Speaking during the launch of WALIMU Savings and Credit Cooperative Organization (SACCO) funds for the teachers of West Nile on Tuesday, the teachers, mostly from primary and secondary schools blamed their reluctance to upgrade their levels of education on what they called government’s “failure to value their academic papers.”

“We are urging the government to pay us according to our qualifications. For our case as primary teachers, we are getting a salary scale of U7 which is about Shs.400, 000 net whether you are a graduate or a fresh Grade III teacher, and this has demoralized many of us from upgrading,” said Daphine Amajuru, a teacher from Adjumani district.

At the event held at Heritage Courts Hotel in Arua town and graced by First Deputy Prime Minister Moses Ali, the Union(WALIMU) officials also launched a dummy cheque of Shs.499.8million, which has already been disbursed to three teachers’ SACCOs of Adjumani, Nebbi/Zombo and West Nile teachers’ SACCO.

The money is part of the Shs.17.085 billion which was received by WALIMU SACCO from the government of Uganda, as part of the government’s phased pledge to invest Shs.5billion in the teachers’ SACCO. WALIMU SACCO is the umbrella body of all teachers’ SACCOs in Uganda, whose principal role is to foster the growth and development of teachers’ SACCOs in the country.

During the function, Amajuru told Gen.Ali that many teachers were finding it useless to spend their little salaries on upgrading yet the government doesn’t factor in qualifications when determining their pay. She said that as a result, teachers were lacking in motivation, thus affecting the performance of government schools.

She instead proposed that the government set aside funds to assist teachers to upgrade, like is the case with other civil servants in the district.

Amajuru was backed by another teacher, Marino Tabule from Maracha, who argued that time had come for the government to start paying teachers’ salary scales that are commensurate to their level of education.

“When you complete a Diploma especially for primary school teachers, they say that adds you a knowledge advantage, but the pay stays the same. I think that is totally unfair because they don’t consider the fact that you spent a lot on the studies.,” said Tabule.

Meanwhile, Jamal Magezi, a teacher of Onzivu primary school in Arua Municipality attributed teacher absenteeism and by extension, poor performance of government schools to the poor remuneration of teachers, which he said leaves them no option but to look elsewhere to make ends meet, undermining their concentration at school.

“The uncertainty in the fluctuating prices in the market is affecting us so much, a reason we opt to go for quick loans and later run away from classes for fear of being arrested by the financial institutions,” said Magezi.

He welcomed government investment in their SACCOs, saying that it was a welcome relief from exorbitant interest rates of commercial banks.

“Most microfinance institutions have been giving us loans with high-interest rates. You find a teacher borrowing money at an interest rate of between 20 to 30 percent per month, and yet he has other things to do with the same salary. This has forced most teachers to dodge classes because money lenders are following them for their loans,” said Magezi.

In response, Moses Ali assured the teachers that the government was aware of their plight, and promised to present their concerns in Cabinet. In the meantime, he urged the teachers to make use of the WALIMU SACCO funds to supplement their salaries.

“Your number is so big as teachers and this has been a big challenge to the government. But as we prepare to address your problems, use this opportunity to borrow at affordable rates to supplement on your salaries,” he said.

According to Stephen Nabende, the National Board Chairman of WALIMU SACCOs Union, so far, 17, 000 teachers from 185 SACCOs have benefited from the funds in the whole country. He encouraged the teachers in West Nile to form more SACCOS in their respective districts also partake in the opportunity

WALIMU SACCOs Union advances funds to teachers’ SACCOs at an interest rate of 8 percent per annum, and teachers borrow the money at a rate not exceeding 15 percent per year, a rate that’s significantly lower compared to those of commercial banks.

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