The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), held a two-day meeting (from Monday, 28th to Tuesday, 29th November 2022) at the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR), Sunyani, Bono Region, to among others, discuss critical issues of importance to University Teachers in Ghana, including the state of the industrial action embarked upon on 17th October 2022 in response to the unilateral variation of the Conditions of Service of workers of public universities to their disadvantage, without recourse to them.
The Meeting resolved as follows:
1. The industrial action must continue unabated. However, all essential services listed by the various local unions and branches of the Association, must continue to remain outside the purview of the strike action.
2. There have been several engagements with the Employer and the National Labour Commission (NLC) with the view to resolving the ongoing impasse.
Nevertheless, these have yielded no meaningful results. We, therefore, call on the Employer and the NLC to be more proactive in expediting discussions to bring closure to the industrial action, in order not to destabilise the 2022/2023 academic calendar.
3. Government must be serious in its Base Pay negotiations with Organised Labour. Given the current inflation and economic miserisation of the ordinary Ghanaian worker, UTAG fully supports the proposal for Base Pay and relativity increase of 60 and 2 percent, respectively, and call on all Labour Unions in Ghana to remain resolute in supporting leadership in the fight for living wage and better Conditions of Service.
4. UTAG review of the 2023 Budget Statement points to a unilinear imposition of more austerity measures that are likely to negatively impact the already impoverished public sector worker. We support the several calls for downsizing of Government as a show of sacrifice in an attempt to restore economic stability.
5. We are mindful of the impact of industrial harmony on productivity, and it is our utmost desire to maintain industrial peace in order to boost productivity and increase our work quality. We urge the Employer and other policy makers to also cherish same values of respect and commitment to agreements signed, that produces industrial harmony among labour unions. In this regard, we wish to remind Government about its agreements already reached with UTAG, to review the Single Spine Salary Structure, implement the 2019 Labour Market Survey Report and other key interventions to improve the Conditions of Service of our members beginning 2023. These agreements reached have been signed and are not subject to renegotiation in any form or shape. We call on the Employer to prepare for their implementation in January 2023 as already agreed. We warn or serve notice that there would be more industrial action from our members, and the ranks of other labour unions, should Government fail to adhere to its own agreements with us, and/or appreciate our magnanimous proposals and recommendations.
6. We appreciate the difficult conditions that led to the delays in the payment of the 2021/2022 Book and Research
Allowances (BRA) but call on the Employer to put measures in place to ensure that this does not recur. We also call on government to use prevailing exchange rates in determining payment of future BRA.
7. The straight-jacket announcement of a freeze of employment in the public sector should not apply to public universities, as lecturers are already over-burdened with ever increasing student numbers. Considering the fact that most public universities did not receive clearance to employ additional staff in 2022, the expected increase in enrolment for the 2022/2023 academic year, and the introduction of new programmes to meet the developmental needs of the country, the logical step is to grant employment in the public universities.
8. We discussed the over-bearing posturing of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), and, in
particular, the unwelcoming conduct of some of its officials. UTAG would resist any attempt to unnecessarily
subsume the management of public universities under the GTEC.
9. Finally, we call on our members to remain calm, and to trust that the NEC and leadership of our Association
are working to champion their utmost interest.
Long Live UTAG, Long Live Labour Unions, Long Live the Fight for Better Conditions of Service for Labour, and
Long Live Ghana
Source: Peacefmonline.com
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