Barely two days after students of the University of The Gambia staged a protest over poor welfare and conditions, the university’s faculty and staff association too are threatening to follow suit.
The association yesterday submitted a 14- day notice of its plan for an industrial sit down strike to the Department of Labour.
According to the staff association leadership, the proposed strike is informed by the UTG authorities’ failure to act on resolutions they adopted at congress on 16 July that was submitted to the Vice Chancellor and the Ministry of Higher Education for consideration and action within specified timelines.
The staff association argued in its notice to Labour that since the submission of the resolution to the authorities in September 2026, it has received neither a formal acknowledgement of receipt nor a substantive response or an invitation to engage in discussions to address the matters raised.
The association charged that this continued absence of engagement is “deeply disappointing given that the outstanding matters are not only about welfare, rights and working conditions of staff but also the governance, administration, accountability and long-term institutional stability” of the university.
The staff threaten to proceed with industrial action if these demands remain unresolved after the 14 day notice period.
“The proposed action is intended to be peaceful, orderly and conducted within the law and is not designed to interrupt any service where such interruption would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or any part of the population. We respectfully request that the Department of Labour take note of this notice and, where appropriate, facilitate engagement among the parties to help resolve the outstanding matters before the notice period expires,” the UTG staff association asked Labour.
