The University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) has announced a strike action starting Monday, January 10 after the government’s failure to address ‘the worsening conditions of service of lecturers.’
According to UTAG, its members would withdraw their services until their conditions of service are improved.
The Association, in a statement dated January 8 explained government has flouted the agreed timelines to address their concerns and reiterated its resolve to follow through with the decision to withdraw teaching and related activities until further notice.
UTAG indicated that at its emergency meetings held on Tuesday and Friday, 4th and 7th January 2022, respectively, the National Executive Committee (NEC) of UTAG discussed the worsening Conditions of Service (CoS) of the University Teacher and the failure of government in addressing the plight of UTAG members within the agreed timelines.
According to the leadership of UTAG, the Interim Market Premium (IMP) that 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 a 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 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 said.
According to UTAG, there was also an LMS in 2014 whose Report did not see the light of day and questioned if the 2019 LMS Report would ever be implemented since it is already two years old.
It questioned how a national agenda of increasing employment prospects of university graduates as recommended by the Public Services Commission could be attained if the CoS of the University Teacher keeps worsening year on year leading to an ever-increasing attrition rate on campuses.
“UTAG members see the timing of the release of the 2019 report as one of the usual delay tactics that the Employer has employed over the years, which is unacceptable,” it stated.
“Generally our members have decried the pittance agreed to be paid as annual research allowance and would want to have government to reconsider the payment of a more realistic research allowance as this is critical to our research output, promotion and ultimately national development,” it added.
UTAG reiterated its resolve to follow through with the decision it took at its meeting on 7th January, 2022 to withdraw teaching and related activities until further notice from Monday, 10th January 2022 and called on all UTAG members across the 15 branches to observe the directive.
UTAG also called on the government to as a matter of urgency restore members to the 2013 IMP of 114% of basic salary in the interim while it goes ahead to formulate guidelines to implement the appropriate recommendations to address the CoS of the university teacher.
The Association cautioned that following the uneasiness among members, any delay by the government would further exacerbate the already fragile academic calendar to the detriment of all stakeholders.
UTAG had initially embarked on strike in August, 2021, which lasted for weeks during which it requested government to restore the conditions of service agreed upon in 2012, which they said is far better than what pertains currently.
Following the strike action, a Memorandum of Agreement signed by the government and UTAG after the meeting indicated that both parties agreed there was a need to get back to the negotiating table from the week beginning Monday 23rd August, 2021.
During the period, the government and UTAG were expected among other things to negotiate the research component of the Book and Research Allowance, market premium, and non-basic allowance.
UTAG, however, says for months their concerns have not been addressed per the agreed timelines in the previous negotiations and stressed until their conditions of service are improved, they will not hesitate to withdraw their services.
Source: Mypublisher24.com