The Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) has denied claims of implementing a decision that will stop the payment of allowances of office holders in public universities from September this year.
The Ghana Association of University Administrators (GAUA) making the allegation said the directive is in bad faith and unfair labour practice as it has the potential to cause adverse variations in the conditions of service of members who have been duly appointed to management positions.
A communique issued by the Ghana Association of University Administrators (GAUA) at an emergency National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting on August 17, 2023, stated that GAUA is concerned about the hurried implementation of the said directive and the potential chaos with adverse variations in the conditions of service of affected members of the association who had been duly appointed to positions of management.
It said, re-engineering of the administrative structures in the public universities is a grave task that should be done in a meticulous and unhurried manner to preserve vital university data and institutional memory for posterity.
The association is demanding that GTEC’s directive be suspended, or they will go on a nationwide strike by August 31 if their concerns are not addressed.
It said considering all the above, the GAUA NEC, by this communiqué demands the immediate suspension of this GTEC directive and its implementation to allow for constructive engagement by all relevant stakeholders.
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However, Deputy Director-General of GTEC, Prof. Ahmed Jinapor says several letters written to the University Administrators for a meeting on the said directive has not been honored.
He argued saying “just for the benefit of doubt when it comes to the general public, you cannot be paying somebody an office holding allowance just by virtue of the fact that the person is a non-academic staff. For instance, we have offices such as Manager of Cold Room, Small Animal Project, Large Animal Project, Snail Project, Photo Copier Room. So, its 100’s of issues that we are dealing with and this conversation is not ending, it is going to be continue.”
Prof. Jinapor said though GAUA turned its invitation to have a discussion down, there are other channels they may adopt to address the issue.
“I can promise you and the general public that we are going to elevate it to a level above us and an arbitration body would come in, sit in, and give each of us the opportunity to bring our case forward. And I think that case is going to be revolved. There’s no cause for alarm,” he continued.
Meanwhile, in an interview on ATLFMNEWS Tuesday, the national Secretary of GAUA, Surveyor Richard Afriyie explained that GAUA did not decline the request but suggested “since the Association copied their August 17, 2023 communique to relevant stakeholders such as the Ministry of finance, fair wages and salaries, Ministry of Labour among others, it’s our expectation that in that meeting, representatives from these stakeholders be present to help in the discussions in that regard.”
He, therefore, said it is their hope that an invitation to the meeting is also extended to such stakeholders before they attend the meeting.
Source: Anthony Sasu Ayisadu/ATLFMNEWS
