Student unions in the country have slammed lecturers in public universities for embarking on an indefinite strike despite ongoing negotiations with government towards the payment of their book and research allowances.
The University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) on Thursday, 6 August, 2015 declared indefinite strike over delays in the payment of their book and research allowances(R&B) which formed part of their conditions of service.
The grant is paid to teachers in public universities and their counterparts in polytechnics to aid in their research work.
The annual grant is paid at the end of each academic year, but the university lecturers say the payment is long overdue.
According to them, several letters written to government were yet to be acknowledged hence the sudden decision to lay down their tools.
So far only the allowances for 2014/2015 academic year are yet to be paid.
According to UTAG, since strike is the only language the government understands, their members were withdrawing teaching services until government paid up.
The teachers’ action comes only one week to the commencement of the 2015/2016 academic year.
But the Ghana Association of University Students (USAG) and the Ghana National Union of Polytechnic Students (GNUPS) say the strike is not justified.
Citing sub-section 162 of the Labour Act which states that “any party to an industrial dispute shall not resort to a strike action or lock-out during the period when negotiation, mediation or arbitration proceedings are in progress,” USAG wondered why the lecturers were in a hurry to go on strike when they (lecturers) have admitted that they were still engaging government on the matter.
According to the spokesperson and International Relations Secretary for USAG, Nana Otoo Darko, the withdrawal of teaching services would disrupt the academic calendar, noting that students would be the ultimate losers as a result.
He wondered why lecturers always resorted to strike which is supposed to be the last option in labour disputes and argued that students tend to bear the brunt of such strikes and not the employer.
“When they come back, are they going to change the academic calendar,” he asked in an interview on Accra-based Radio Gold last Friday.
He observed that each time lecturers went on strike and came back, they did not make up for the lost time which was a worry to students.
Whiles he acknowledged that the lecturers might have a legitimate claim “but he who seeks equity must come with clean hands,” he declared, saying they should try and engage government no matter the length of time it would take them since that was the essence of democracy.
However, the USAG spokesperson pointed that the R & B grant must be interrogated since what the majority of the teachers do come nowhere near research.
According to him, the libraries of the various universities are stuffed with books authored by foreigners which these Ghanaian lecturers relied on to teach.
“We have a few who are doing the research but we are talking about the larger number of the lecturers who don’t do research,” he said.
Mr. Otoo Darko also questioned why the teachers were against the proposed research fund to be set up by government from which they could access bigger amounts for their research since what is given them currently was scanty.
“It’s because they think whatever comes at the end of the month will not go directly into (their) pockets,” he claimed and argued that there was the need to revisit the issue of book and research allowance.
He cautioned that the days when the strength of unions lied in strikes and/or demonstrations were over, stressing that “We are now in an era of negotiations and how far your eloquence spirit can go will determine a force for you.”
Mr. Otoo Darko said the students will continue to engage UTAG and government until the impasse was resolved.
In the meantime, he said UTAG should reconsider their decision since students are those bearing the brunt of their strike.
For his part, the Coordinating Secretary for (GNUPS), Kwame Amponsah Manu, questioned the legitimacy of the strike whilst condemning the manner the strike was declared saying it was pre-emptive.
“We have letters that have been written indicating that the processes have begun and then you say I am laying down my tools until the money reflects in my accounts I am not going to lecture,” he said, adding that it is not as if the grant has been in arrears for a year to warrant a strike.
Mr. Amponsah Manu observed that strikes by UTAG and Polytechnic Teachers Association of Ghana (POTAG) have become perennial problems that ought to be addressed once and for all.
He said the option of laying down their tools always affected innocent students, noting that there are other services lecturers offer which they could withdraw apart from teaching services.
He said per the actions of the lecturers he did not share in their claim that they have students’ interest at heart; because there are other options they could use rather than sacrificing students
He said the lecturers could proceed to court for the government to be compelled to pay the book and research allowance or better still withdraw all non-teaching services.
In any case, Mr. Amponsah Manu said, the payment of the B&R allowance was questionable and unsustainable.
He averred that instead of paying the grant to the lecturers who do not carry out any research, the amounts should be paid to the institutions so that when lecturers need funds for their research they could access it.
But with the current arrangement where monies are directly paid into the private accounts of lecturers there was no way of ensuring accountability.
He said if care was not taken government would be burdened with huge research allowances in future which only go to line private pockets instead of helping to broaden the frontiers of knowledge.
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