The University Teachers’ Association of Ghana (UTAG) has urged members to honour its decision to return to the classroom today while the association negotiates towards the March 4 deadline.
A statement issued by the association thanked all its branches for heeding to the call of the NEC to temporarily suspend the strike action till March 4, 2022, to pave way for it to negotiate with the government.
The statement was signed by UTAG’s National President, Prof. Solomon Nunoo, and National Secretary, Dr Asare Asante-Annor.
“On the issue of whether or not to return to the lecture rooms after a Branch declares its stand, in accordance with UTAG constitution and Bylaws, we wish to urge all UTAG members to kindly return to the lecture rooms to teach as per the circulars released by the Management Team of the various Public Universities till the NEC of UTAG states otherwise,” the statement noted.
The statement also added that since the final suspension of the strike action on Tuesday, February 22, 2022, the negotiation team of UTAG had held one meeting with the government team and another with one of the eminent personalities who intervened in the matter.
“The next set of meetings is scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday March 2 and March 3, 2022. We wish to congratulate all Branches that have successfully held their referendum to formally state their position on whether they are for the strike action or otherwise. The referendum ends on Monday February 28 and we wish all Branches that they will vote on that day success. Afterwards the NEC of UTAG has up to five days to meet to consider the outcome of the referendum,” part of the statement read.
Coincidentally, the said period falls within the five days after which the constitution renders injunctions duly elapsed.
This provides the association ample time to take a decision as to whether to resume the industrial action or not, depending on the outcome of negotiations with government and stakeholders.
Meanwhile, the Association has already communicated its readiness to temporarily comply with the court order to resume work after an injunction was granted the National Labour Commission (NLC).
Why strike?
UTAG embarked on the strike on January 10, calling on the employer to restore members to the
2013 Interim Market Premium (IMP) of 114 per cent of basic salary.
They also want the government to go ahead to formulate guidelines to implement the appropriate
recommendations to address the general conditions of service of the university teacher. It is the
case of UTAG that the IMP, which was instituted after the implementation of the Single Spine
Pay Policy, was frozen, per a government White Paper in 2013, for the purpose of the conduct of
a labour market survey (LMS) to determine the MP payable to workers deserving of it.
UTAG contended that, till date, the determination had not been made, which had resulted in the
erosion of the university teacher’s salary.
In its release declaring the strike on January 7, this year, the UTAG Council said there was the
hope that, by completing and implementing the LMS Report of 2019, a review of the IMP would
have put the university teacher on a relatively good salary stead.
On February 15, the Court granted an interlocutory injunction against UTAG’s industrial action
after an appeal by the National Labour Commission (NLC).
The NLC dragged UTAG to court after attempts to have UTAG call off its strike failed.
UTAG has been on strike since January 10, 2022, over government’s failure to review their
conditions of service since 2017. Students were academically disadvantaged as the lecturers
refused to back down on their demands.
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