The National Labour Commission and the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) are scheduled to begin talks today, Monday, August 23, 2021.
This comes after the government and UTAG signed a Memorandum of Understanding, which resulted in the suspension of the latter’s 13-day strike.
UTAG went on strike in response to the government’s inability to restore agreed-upon service standards for members in 2012.
In an interview, UTAG President Professor Charles Marfo said that the union wants the government to handle this opportunity with sufficient dedication or face another strike.
According to him, they (UTAG) want to put an end to this problem once and for all.
“We have been negotiating and we said that the negotiation wasn’t going well because the government’s attention to our meeting wasn’t right and it was on that basis we gave them a deadline and went on strike. Now we have realized the seriousness and we want to have serious business and get things done with, and that is why we have even indicated the period within which the negotiation should take place.”
We’ve suspended our strike, we’ll call it off after successful negotiations
UTAG has previously said that it would only call off its strike if negotiations with the government and the NLC are fruitful.
“We have not called it [strike] off. We have only suspended it. If we look at the document [Memorandum of Understanding], there are reasons for the suspension.”
“We are supposed to have negotiations and finish within 30 days and if everyone is satisfied, there will be no continuation of a strike. Everything is clearly stated in the MoU, our concerns, needs, and conditions of service and the government has promised to look at them,” he said.
The industrial action
UTAG members have been on strike since the beginning of August 2021, demanding that the government restore the service conditions agreed upon in 2012, which they claim are much superior to the present scenario.
The 2012 Single Spine package paid entry-level professors $2,084, while the current level pays academics approximately $900.
The UTAG strike had a significant impact on academic and non-academic activities at different tertiary institutions.
The High Court’s Labour Division, 1 recommended the National Labour Commission (NLC) and UTAG to reach an out-of-court settlement over their industrial action.
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