Unpaid, striking academics reject dialogue with ministry

After months of protests, sit-ins and strikes, the Union of Tunisian University Teachers and Researchers (IJABA) has refused to sit down to negotiate with the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MESRS) as long as the salaries of striking university academics remain frozen.

In a statement on 22 March IJABA (meaning 'answer' in Arabic) rejected “all negotiations as long as the salaries of striking university professors and researchers are frozen and that it does not negotiate under the policy of starvation".

IJABA "strongly deplores the arbitrary, illegitimate, illegal, immoral, and inhumane freezing of the wages of striking university professors", it said.

The IJABA movement is an independent syndicate aimed at unifying academics and researchers in defence of their rights, ensuring independence of universities, promoting academic freedom, establishing democratic practices in universities, and upgrading higher education.

The statement followed an invitation from the ministry on 21 March calling for negotiations on 27 March.

IJABA also announced a protest rally on 25 March which was followed by a sit-in at the ministry's headquarters. Video footage and photographs of the protest action are available on social media.

Academics’ demands

Since January 2018, about 2,000 university professors have refused to conduct examinations and undertaken regular protests demanding reforms to the higher education system as well as better salaries, working conditions and employment regulations to halt the “brain drain” of professors and other highly skilled graduates.

An IJABA-MESRS agreement reached in June 2018 included a framework for dealing with poor pay and university reforms. However, in 2018, following what the union said was non-compliance by the ministry, IJABA called upon academics to embark upon an administrative strike and refuse to submit topics for exams in the first semester. In addition, annual research reports in respect of research professors have not been available in scientific research centres.

In a 28 March statement, the ministry defended its right to withdraw the salaries of non-working staff members, and expressed its regret for what it described as "the continuous and irresponsible escalation by the union and its continued adoption of an illegal move to refrain from enabling students to take their exams”.

The ministry stressed that their invitation to return to responsible dialogue was still open.

As part of its campaign against the government IJABA has launched an electronic initiative #StopChahedEtSlim to denounce "the dangerous project of the head of the Tunisian government which aims to annihilate the public university and install private foreign universities on Tunisian soil".

IJABA also plans to send letters to international human rights organisations and organisations in the field of education to denounce the Tunisian state's attack on the social and economic rights of striking academics and state policy, according to a 16 March IJABA statement.

IJABA said it will prosecute the head of government and the minister of higher education for disrespecting the constitution, trade union freedoms and human rights. It has also confirmed that after the completion of classes in May, academics consider themselves to have “no obligation and there will be no exams".

Solidarity

On 19 March, the World Federation of Teachers' Unions (FISE) issued a statement expressing its support for its “comrades” in IJABA, and accused the ministry of reacting “in a stubborn and ruthless way without taking the culmination of the academic year and the future of tens of thousands of students into consideration".

"Added to this, is the danger that does threaten the lives of thousands of families after their incomes have been frozen, following the decision taken by the Tunisian ministry of higher education to lock the issue of the salaries of the teachers on strike," it said.

"We have previously welcomed the agreement that had been signed between your union and the government in June 2018, but the way the government has breached it and has shut the door on any possible negotiation has done nothing but make things even worse and threaten the academic year with possible suspension by putting the Tunisian national university and the public education sector in this republic that has just got out of the ashes of dictatorship at risk."