WIGUT pres­i­dent Dr In­di­ra Ram­per­sad has as­sured staff that the long-await­ed back pay owed to UWI St Au­gus­tine em­ploy­ees is now in its fi­nal stages of ap­proval, telling mem­bers, “It had to come. It was a le­gal agree­ment.”

Speak­ing at WIGUT’s Homage to Hero­ism: Decades of Ded­i­ca­tion cer­e­mo­ny on Fri­day, Ram­per­sad said the union had re­peat­ed­ly urged mem­bers to re­main pa­tient de­spite years of de­lay.

“I know the back pay took some time in com­ing, but I kept say­ing keep calm, keep fo­cused, keep pos­i­tive,” she said. “Some­times there’s bu­reau­cra­cy in gov­ern­ment … things have to get ap­proved, and it has to go through var­i­ous stages.”