Dear Staff,

Following the announcement of a curfew in Suva and Nausori from 11pm on Friday 14 May to 4am on Wednesday 19 May, FNU would like to draw the attention of staff to the following points:

• Working from home – Although working from home brings its own challenges, all staff are reminded that they must use their best endeavours to continue performing their duties as per their job descriptions. Staff who are experiencing difficulties working from home should contact their supervisor.

• Collecting devices from workspaces – All staff are advised to make necessary arrangements with their respective line managers/supervisors and coordinate with ICT personnel to collect equipment/devices today and tomorrow to enable them to work effectively from home. The collection of these items within a containment area should be relatively easy to arrange. Collection across containment areas may not be possible, but ICT will do their best to accommodate relevant requests.

• Online learning and teaching – It is especially important that all scheduled classes go ahead online, and that students’ studies are not disrupted. FNU has an agreement with Internet Service Providers Vodafone and Digicel to enable users to access the University website and Moodle free of charge. There is significant support available for academic staff from the Centre for Flexible and E-Learning and the Centre for Learning & Teaching Enhancement.

• Payroll – The payroll system can be operated remotely, so we do not anticipate any issues with processing payroll to the normal schedule. Staff do not need to worry about being paid on time during any lockdown or curfew.

• Leave – The Employee Self Service can be accessed by all staff remotely to submit leave requests and access other services.

Staff are urged to follow the official health advice and adhere to all government guidance to combat the spread of COVID-19. If you are experiencing symptoms like a dry cough, fever, fatigue/tiredness, loss of taste or smell, shortness of breath/chest pain, aches and pains, please call 158 immediately.

Staff are advised to follow the FNU website, official FNU social media pages and check their emails for ongoing advisories regarding University operations. Please refer to the links below:

https://www.facebook.com/fnuofficial

https://www.instagram.com/fijinationaluniversity/

https://www.linkedin.com/school/fiji-national-university

https://twitter.com/FNUFiji

https://www.fnu.ac.fj/news-events/covid-19/

Above all, please be kind and understanding to your fellow colleagues during this difficult period. Together, as one community, we will come through these challenges.

Stay safe and best wishes,

Professor Toby Wilkinson

Vice-Chancellor

Fiji National University