UTAG suspends ongoing strike after reaching consensus with stakeholders

The University Teachers Association of Ghana has suspended their 3-week old strike action today following fruitful negotiations with stakeholders yesterday.

On the 2nd of August 2021, the University Teachers Association of Ghana embarked on a strike action to demand better conditions of service from their employer, the government of Ghana. They said they have been negotiating with the government for close to ten years on the subject matter.

According to the teachers association, they want to be placed on the condition of service with was agreed with them for the Single Spine Salary Structure introduced by the government of Ghana in 2010. Under that CoS, the entry gross salary of a lecturer would be USD2,084.42 but currently, the entry gross salary for a lecturer is USD997.84 (GHC5,687.66). They thus wanted to be moved to the 2012 agreed figure of USD2,084.42 having suffered a drop of USD1,086.57 with the current figure.

There have been back and forth between the association and the government represented by the National Labour Commission and the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations with a meeting between the two parties ending inconclusively during the first week of the strike.

The National Labour Commission secured a court injunction forcing the lecturers to return to the classroom to resume their duties but the Association defied the court’s order as all 13-member universities registered their support for the strike to continue despite the order of the court.

Having flouted the court’s order, the association was again hauled before the court for contempt of court and their day ended with the two parties agreeing to have a negotiation which has now led to the suspension of the strike.

In a statement released today, August 19, 2021, the Association noted that gave its reason for suspending the strike which is not the same as calling off the strike.

“Apropos to the Memorandum of Agreement (MoU) that transpired on Wednesday, 18th August 2021 with the appropriate stakeholders over the undying throbbing issue that was deliberated on, a consensus have[sic] been reached and unanimously consented upon,” parts of the statement read.

They have thus directed their members to resume work on 23rd August 2021 “as a sign of good faith and empathy” for their distressed students. They also assured that arrangements for the conduct of examinations would be communicated to the students through the right channels by the respective managements.

Source: Active News Follow on Twitter @activetvgh

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