UTAG members refuse to call off strike despite engagement with stakeholders
Disgruntled members of the University Teachers Association of Ghana(UTAG ) have indicated that they are still not in the lecture halls discharging their duties despite various engagements with stakeholders in the education sector over their members’ demands.
They have however resolved that they will still stay away from lecture rooms until their demands for better conditions of service are met by the government.
Dr. Samuel Nkuban, President of the University of Ghana chapter of UTAG, said the agencies responsible for making sure that their required conditions of service are met are yet to take any concrete decision that will encourage them[UTAG] to call off the strike.
“We’ve had a couple of meetings; one with Ministry of Education and also with Vice Chancellor’s Ghana and in all of these, the understanding was to seek clarity on what the demands of UTAG are and also to see how they can be able to mediate between the government stakeholders that are able to make a determination on our conditions of service and UTAG. This is in the hope to secure a deal that will get us back to the classroom. Beyond that, there hasn’t been any call up for UTAG to engage government,” he said.
He assured that UTAG is willing to return to the classroom if the government in the interim considers a 114% base pay and interim market premium for them as they await the labour market survey to regularize the amount.
“[What we want is] For government in the interim to consider the 114% of base pay currently and interim market premium, for us to be able to accept that. That is a reasonable concession that we can work with pending the completion of a labour market survey and its implementation, which is currently in the pipeline… Our decision is premised on the fact that something positive comes on the side of government which improves our condition and if that is not happening, we do not see ourselves coming any time soon,” he added.
By: Stella Annan | myactiveonline.com Twitter @activetvgh
