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ACADEMIC and administrative staff at the Mona campus of The University of the West Indies (The UWI) yesterday suspended their industrial action, which will pave the way for normality at the January 17 start of the new semester.The staff, represented by the West Indies Group of University Teachers (WIGUT), started industrial action last Friday to highlight their dissatisfaction with the pace of wage and fringe benefit negotiations with the university, which started in 2020."The management of The UWI and WIGUT Jamaica met this morning to discuss the outstanding items of claim, including the matter of the four per cent salary item. Several advancements were made in relation to key outstanding claim items, including the salary item," said a joint statement from WIGUT and The UWI Monday."Consequently, WIGUT agrees to suspend its industrial action with the expectation of concluding negotiations without further delays. The parties hope to have all outstanding items resolved and concluded by the end of January," the statement said.Speaking with the Jamaica Observer, WIGUT President Professor Paul Brown was unable to disclose agreements reached from Monday's meeting but noted that it ended on a good note."I think the overall thing is that with the suspension of the industrial action, then there will be a sense of normalcy on the campuses and so students will be very happy in that regard. We would be able to go to normal start of the semester two, grades would be entered, that sort of thing, so I think that is a positive outcome," Brown said.Asked if he was assured that outstanding matters would be cleared up by the end of this month, Brown said, "We are confident that given the renewed emphasis and interest, and participation across the table we will be able to resolve all of the thorny, knotty issues and conclude those negotiations, which is really why we had to resort to that in the first place," he said.Brown had said that following a meeting of WIGUT's executive committee last Thursday and an emergency general meeting on Friday, measures would have been implemented with immediate effect if the university did not reach out to the union.The measures included students not being able to access their December 2021 final exam results as staff members vowed neither to attend department, faculty, or university meetings nor participate in activities geared towards the resumption of the new semester on January 17.Further, Brown indicated that academic staff would not upload marksheets for semester one examinations that would have ended last December; they however were subsequently advised to complete their markings.UWI Guild President Danielle Mullings, in a Twitter post last week, said the administration had indicated that semester one examination results would be released this Friday.