University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) has decided to withdraw its services from tomorrow, Monday, January 10, 2022, until further notice. The strike action is to drive home the concerns of UTAG about its Conditions of Service (CoE). It is also to call out UTAG’s employer, the government, for reneging on parts of agreements reached between the two groups.
“For the reasons stated above, the NEC of UTAG at its meeting held on 7th January 2022 reiterated its resolve to follow through with the decision to withdraw teaching and related activities until further notice with effect from Monday, 10th January 2022 and call on all UTAG members across the fifteen (15) branches to observe this directive.
As a matter of urgency, we also call on the Employer to restore members to the 2013 IMP of 114% of Basic Salary in the interim whilst Government goes ahead to formulate guidelines to implement the appropriate recommendations to address the CoS of the University Teacher,” UTAG said.
These sentiments were contained in a Press Statement signed by the National President of UTAG, Professor Solomon Nunoo as well as 15 other branch Presidents and copied to A1 Radio.
UTAG argued that it has been shortchanged for years. In the statement, it explained that “it may be recalled that the Interim Market Premium (IMP) which was instituted following the implementation of the Single Spine Pay Policy got frozen, per a Government White Paper, in 2013, for the purpose of the conduct of an LMS to determine an MP payable to workers deserving of it. To date, this determination has not been made, which has resulted in the erosion of the University Teacher’s salary. There was the hope that by completing and implementing the Labour Market Survey (LMS) Report of 2019, a review of the IMP would have put the University Teacher on a relatively good salary stead. Regrettably, the recommendations of the 2019 LMS Report without any accompanying technical report on the implementable MP is meaningless to UTAG as it does not address the pertinent issues of improved COS”.
The statement continued to say that there was an LMS in 2014 which was not utilized, thus making the Association wonder whether the LMS of 2019 would be implemented since its already been two years after its completion.
UTAG insisted that their current predicament is a result of deliberate feet-dragging by the employer.
“In addition, recommendation (ii) from the 2019 LMS Report states that “Public Services Commission should liaise with educational institutions to prioritise the offering of courses in areas of demand to increase the employment prospects of their graduates and increase the pool of applicants for high vacancies. How can such a National Agenda be attained if the CoS of the University Teacher keeps worsening year on year leading to an ever-increasing attrition rate on our campuses? UTAG members see the timing of the release of the report as one of the usual delay tactics that the Employer has employed over the years, which is unacceptable”.
UTAG reminded government that it is in its [the government’s] best interest to resolve the current issues so that it [UTAG] can return to the classroom.
“Following the uneasiness among UTAG members, any delay by the Employer would further exacerbate the already fragile academic calendar to the detriment of all stakeholders,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, the President of UTAG at the C. K. Tedam University for Technical and Applied Sciences (CKT-UTAS), Dr. Jonas Bugase was speaking to A1 News the lecturers could not continue to toil for the good of the country while a few people reaped the benefits of what the economy had to offer.
“Government needs to understand that it must pay attention to the needs of labour. Just within the first week of January, how many labour unions have gone on strike? Is it not because of worsening conditions? There is the need for government to make a considerable effort to resolve all of these concerns quickly. We also understand that the economy has some challenges but we cannot keep saying same while Article 71 holders are there enjoying the best conditions and those toiling for the system are left hungry,” he explained.
Below is the full statement:
A1radioonline.com|101.1 MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
