A spokesperson says the 146 workers who have received only half of their salaries since September 2020 would like the Sabah government to look into their plight.
The staff first received an internal memo in June 2020 from UCSF vice-chancellor Mohamed Haleem Mohamed Razi announcing a Temporary Austerity Measure (TAM) in light of a plunge in student intake for the April semester.
The spokesperson, who requested anonymity, said that the previous Warisan-led state government halted the pay cut scheme a month later.
“The staff received their full salary from June to August, but in September, after the Sabah election when Warisan was defeated by the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah coalition, they found that the pay cut had been reinstated, and received half of their pay.”
Under the cost-cutting scheme detailed in the June 2020 memo, staff would be subject to a 50% pay cut with working hours reduced to 20 per week, or three days a week.
The spokesperson told FMT that some members of staff, especially those on contract like lecturers and non-academic staff, signed the TAM. The deal was that 60% of them had to sign the memo in order to receive their salaries for that month.
“We agreed to this because the memo said the pay cut was only for four months from June to September 2020. However, on Sept 25, a second memo was released.
“This memo didn’t even ask for our consent and said everyone had to accept the 50% pay cut until January 2021. On Jan 12, we then received a third memo telling us that our salary cuts would continue until April 2021.
“The management didn’t create a platform like town hall meetings, not even online ones, for us to address and discuss this issue. Some of the staff have gone to the Labour Department and the Malaysian Trades Union Congress but progress has been slow,” the spokesperson said.
Former chief minister Shafie Apdal had in June last year ordered a revamp of the UCSF management following its move to cut staff salaries and reduce working hours.
Shafie also ordered the Yayasan Sabah-owned institution to halt pay cuts for its staff, saying there should be no pay cuts and retrenchments despite the effects of Covid-19.
The spokesperson said lecturers at UCSF are paid around RM2,000 per month but they will receive just slightly over RM900 after the 50% pay cut and other related deductions.
“This is lower than minimum wage,” the spokesperson said, adding that despite the pay cut, they had to carry on with online classes due to the pandemic.
“Although we don’t go to the office, our efforts are doubled as we need to prepare for our online classes. The total working hours for three days in a week do not apply to us.
“Other than teaching based on the timetable, we have to do administrative work related to our courses, such as preparing teaching materials and putting them online, preparing and handling assessments, conducting student consultations especially during non-office hours, and so on.”
The spokesperson said lecturers also had to bear the cost for unlimited internet data subscription on their own in order to hold the online classes.
“There is no solid action by the management to improve the situation. Our parent company (Sabah Foundation) is aware of the matter but they don’t have any solid solutions.
“Please don’t get us wrong. We don’t mean to blame any party; we only want to seek help,” the UCSF staff said.
FMT has reached out to the UCSF management for comments.