The Academic Staff of the University of Sierra Leone have suspended their industrial strike action which started on Monday 23rd November over conditions of service.

The Lecturers until last Friday were protesting their 100% salary adjustment to reflect in their net pay after all tax deductions-an agreement that was reached with their employers in 2011.

It was meant to cover the astronomical surge in the Dollar exchange which affects every span of economic activity, particularly the gradual, crippling inflation rate – a situation the Lecturers say they are constrained to endure year after year.

 In a letter to the Vice-Chancellor of the University mid-November this year, the Academic staff expressed utter dismay at the non-inclusion of their agreed 100% salary adjustment in the recently-read 2021 Budget Statement.

The University of Sierra Leone comprises West Africa’s oldest tertiary institution – Fourah Bay College, College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences {COMAHS} and Institute of Public Administration and Management {IPAM}.

James Tamba Lebbie, Spokesman for the Academic Staff Association tells our Freetown correspondent Patrick Sallia why they suspended their strike…