Public University Unions Proceed On Intended Strike
The four public university unions in Ghana have declared an industrial action beginning today, October 17, 2022.
The unions include the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), Ghana Association of University Administrators (GAUA), Tertiary Education Workers Union of Ghana (TEWU-GH), and the Senior Staff Association of Universities of Ghana (SSA-UoG).
This comes after their meeting with the government failed to live up to their expectation on its first day, according to a joint press statement released by the unions on Sunday, October 16, 2022.
The unions met with the government represented by the Minister for Education, Minister for Employment and Labour Relations and his deputy, Deputy Minister for Finance, Chief Executive Officer for the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, Director General of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission and other officials as directed by the NLC last week Wednesday during the tripartite meeting.
“The NLC meeting stated that the meeting was for “…the parties to engage within one week on the terms of payment and other related matters…” However the employer failed to present the “Terms of Payment” for the Vehicle Maintenance and Off-campus Allowances which are the main issues in contention as directed by the NLC”, The Unions said.
The Employer, the NLC said, rather suggested the formation of a 10-member committee to address issues with just the Off-Campus allowance.
“The four (4) labour unions rejected the “suggestion” and pushed for an enforcement of the 2022 adjusted ex-fuel pump rate of GHC10.99 thus, the meeting ended in a stalemate”, the statement noted.
The unions are protesting against what they call the government’s decision to vary agreed conditions of service “in the face of hostile economic conditions”.
The unions initially planned to undertake a strike action on October 5, however, it was rescheduled to October 13 with the reason that they wanted “to make room for the government to rescind its decision over their conditions of service”.
On October 13, the unions communicated their decision to put on hold the strike action after a meeting between them, the National Labour Commission (NLC) and the representatives of the government.
It was agreed in the meeting that the unions meet with the employer to deliberate on their terms of payment on Friday October 14 and Monday, October 17.
“After the deliberations, the Commission directed the Employer should hold a meeting with the Labour Unions on Friday 14th October 2022 and Monday 17th October 2022 to “discuss the terms of payment and other related matters. The parties are to report back to the Commission on Wednesday, 19th October 2022 at 3 pm”, the unions said in a press statement dated October 13.
Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini
