Vice Chancellor and President of USP Professor Pal Ahluwalia

More than 600 members of the University of the South Pacific Staff Association will vote today to determine the possibility of a strike action with the aim to remove Vice Chancellor and President of USP, Professor Pal Ahluwalia.

In a statement, the Association says it received approval for the ‘Notice of Intention to Conduct Secret Ballot for Strike Action’ yesterday.

The details of the secret ballot concern the removal of Ahluwalia.

Voting will commence from midday.

FBC News understands that the Association have been raising serious governance concerns regarding Ahluwalia.

Last year, members protested after the Council failed to include their papers in the 96th USP Council meeting.

They claimed that the Pro Chancellor, with the support of the Vice Chancellor, prevented the inclusion of staff papers.

Recently, AUSPS alleges that Ahluwalia unfairly dismissed Dr. Tamara Osborne-Naikatini, a Lecturer in Biology and the President of the Association.

AUSPS General Secretary Rosalia Fatiaki says there are numerous issues that has been pursued through to the USP Council but remains outstanding.

Fatiaki says at this stage staff felt the termination of Dr. Osborne-Naikatini is pure intimidation.

She says following the termination they had filed information with the Ministry of Labour and have been given the green light for the secret ballot.

She says indicators showed that they can succeed with the voting.

“We had voted for this last year when we had our Union meeting. There was a motion put for the whether to support the extension of the VC contact. One Union vote unanimously and the other union voted 96 percent not to support, so that outcome was relayed to Council last year, so nothing has changed.”

She adds if they get the mandate today, they will notify the University that they have achieve a vote to go on strike.

Fatiaki adds that only Fiji based staff will participate in the voting process.

We have sent questions to USP for a response.