The Graduate Students’ Association of Ghana (GRASAG) has appealed to the government to take immediate steps to resolve concerns raised by the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), and the Senior Staff Association of Universities of Ghana, so they could resume work.
Members of UTAG and the Senior Staff Association of Universities of Ghana declared are on strike since Monday, August 2, 2021, over conditions of service, bringing academic work to a halt on university campuses nationwide.
Due to the strike, UTAG members are not lecturing, invigilating, marking examination scripts, or processing examination results.
They have refused to resume work until their concerns are fully addressed by the government.
Unhappy with the current turn of events, GRASAG in a press statement urged the government to take immediate steps towards the amicable settlement of the impasse.
“It is sad and disappointing to note that members of the University Teachers’ Association and the Senior Staff Association-Universities of Ghana give off their best to train and groom researchers and future lecturers for the country’s intellectual fraternity, only to be met with deaf ears, when it comes to remuneration and conditions of service. We deem this as unacceptable, and condemnable in no uncertain terms.”
GRASAG also urged the two unions to consider the interest of students and resume work.
“While we plead with government to expedite steps towards the calling off of the strike, we humbly appeal to UTAG and SSA-UoG to consider the plights of our members, and resume work since it has the potential of affecting the academic calendar of the country.”
What are the demands of UTAG, Universities’ Senior Staff?
UTAG has been asking the government to restore the conditions of service agreed upon with the government in 2012.
The 2012 conditions of service pegged the basic plus market premium of a lecturer at $2,084.42.
UTAG has complained that the current arrangement has reduced its members’ basic premiums to $997.84.
The Universities’ Senior Staff on the other hand has been asking for the award of market premiums and non-basic allowances, as well as the finalisation of negotiations of their conditions of service.
The association earlier accused the government of “contemptuous and total disregard to the National Labour Commission’s (NLC) directives on January 28, 2021, upon hearing from both parties, to resolve all our concerns within a three-month stipulated period, which also regrettably elapsed on March 31, 2021, repugnantly.”