Government is still yet to make any meaningful offers or make any commitments to get the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) back to the classrooms as UTAG’s strike enters its fifth week.
The C.K Tedam University of Technology and Applied Sciences (CKT-UTAS) branch President of UTAG, Dr Jonas Bugase, in an interview on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East, indicated that there have been no clear indications from the government that it wants to strike by UTAG resolved.
This is because despite two meetings; the first on February 8 and the other on February 10 before UTAG together with the NLC appeared before the court, the government is still yet to make UTAG any offers on the requests that have been put in by UTAG.
The situation, according to Dr. Bugase is particularly disturbing, considering the fact that UTAG went out of its way to still proffer solutions aside from the ones agreed upon in the earlier Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
“On the 8th [of February], we met the Minister of Education extensively for over 5 hours. Basically, after five hours of deliberations, they were asking that we come up with some alternative ways in which this impasse can be resolved. UTAG was of the view we have made demands based on government inability to fulfil certain agreements reached in the latter part of last year. If government has an offer for us, then it is possible to take this offer to our members for them to enable us call off or suspend the strike. This was our expectation going into the Tuesday meeting. UTAG was magnanimous to still proffer some suggestions in this regard,” he said.
The CKT-UTAS branch President of UTAG said he was not in the position to disclose the solutions proffered because of the inconclusiveness of the meetings.
After the initial stalemate, Dr Bugase said UTAG was told the solutions proffered would be forwarded to the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission for consideration. In the morning of the court appearance, Thursday February 10, the second meeting also ended inconclusively.
According to Dr. Bugase, the court has directed the NLC to withdraw its court case while the out of court settlement continues. Meanwhile, both parties are expected in court on February 15, 2022.
Dr. Bugase was hopeful that before the court appearance, the government and the relevant stakeholders would reach out, organise another meeting and decide on the way forward.
It would be recalled that the Parliamentary Select Committee in Parliament hinted that it would intervene in the issues surrounding the strike should government fail to get the lecturers back to work. He said Parliament did not want to be intrusive and wanted to be certain that all other avenues had been exhausted.
A1radioonline.com|101.1 MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith |Bolgatanga|Ghana
