Staff of the Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD-UBIDS) have declared a strike over a decision by the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) to migrate them and their colleagues at the CK Tedam University of Technology and Applied Sciences (CKT-UTAS) onto the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) payroll system (IPPD2).
The worker unions, including the local chapters of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), Ghana Association of University Administrators (GAUA), Senior Staff Association-Universities of Ghana (SSA-UoG) and the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU), said their strike will remain in force until the migration process is halted.
They had last month given indications of their intention to strike owing to what they describe as disrespect and an attempt by the Tertiary Education Commission to undermine them.
At a press conference to announce their strike, the leadership of the worker unions of SDD-UBIDS said, “We, therefore, believe that the GTEC is trying to exploit the financial and resource vulnerability of the SDD-UBIDS and CKT-UTAS to forcefully migrate staff to CAGD. It is highly unethical and unlawful for state institutions to take advantage of the vulnerability of other institutions and persons.”
According to them, there was an agreement between them, the Controller and Accountant General’s Department, and Ghana Tertiary Education Commission for the migration process to take place only after the needed add-ons are installed at the various campuses and finance directorate staff trained on how to use the new system, but those are yet to be done.
The worker unions accused the Director-General of GTEC of placing various limitations on them, including the number of staff recruitment the university can undertake.
“We have served notice to the National Labour Commission (NLC) of our intention to embark on a strike action by August 2, 2021, if the attempt by GTEC to migrate the workers prematurely to CAGD’s payroll is not halted and if a clear arrangement for the payment of workers’ salaries from August 2021 is not communicated to us.”
“Since we have not heard anything from GTEC and the University Management, we the workers’ unions have declared a strike effective today August 2, 2021,” they noted.
Read their full address below:
PRESS CONFERENCE TO EMBARK ON INDUSTRIAL ACTION OVER THE INTENDED ILLEGAL MIGRATION OF STAFF OF SDD-UBIDS TO CONTROLLER AND ACCOUNTANT GENERAL’S DEPARTMENT (CAGD) PAYROLL (IPPD2)
We, the workers’ unions of the Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD-UBIDS), namely, University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), Ghana Association of University Administrators (GAUA), Senior Staff Association-Universities of Ghana (SSA-UoG) and the Teachers and Educational Workers’ Union (TEWU), wish to embark on an industrial action following the clandestine move by the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) to migrate staff of SDD-UBIDS and CKT University of Technology and Applied Sciences (CKT-UTAS) onto the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) payroll (IPPD2) in violation of the conditions precedent in the recent agreement between the university workers unions in Ghana, CAGD, and GTEC under the order of the National Labour Commission (NLC).
Key among the conditions precedent for the CAGD’s IPPD2 migration are: (1) IPPD2 application and add-ons to be installed at the various campuses, (2) finance directorates and personnel to be trained on the use of the IPPD2 system without the direct involvement of CAGD, (3) CAGD to undertake a three-month test run with existing payroll data, in parallel to the present payroll systems of the individual campuses so as to rectify all discrepancies, and (4) the status quo at all campuses to remain as directed by NLC until these key conditions are met and a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signed between the workers unions and CAGD.
As at now, none of these has happened on the SDD-UBIDS and CTK-UTAS campuses – no installation of the IPPD2 infrastructure, no training of staff and no test run.
We therefore believe that the GTEC is trying to exploit the financial and resource vulnerability of the SDD-UBIDS and CKT-UTAS to forcefully migrate staff to CAGD. It is highly unethical and unlawful for state institutions to take advantage of the vulnerability of other institutions and persons. We, the workers’ unions, have particularly taken notice of the negative posturing of GTEC towards the SDD-UBIDS.
The GTEC led by Prof. Mohammed Salifu in cahoot with other state agencies has consistently tried to undermine the SDD-UBIDS in several fronts, including granting limited slots for staff recruitment, impeding the creation of faculties and running of academic programmed, characterizing staff of SDD- UBIDS as newly recruited staff, recommending for SDD-UBIDS staff to be placed on conditions of service (salaries and allowances) below other public universities, and the unrelenting attempt to isolate and migrate SDD-UBIDS staff to CAGD’s payroll prematurely.
The GTEC has forcefully placed the Vice Chancellor, Ag Pro-Vice Chancellor and Finance Director of SDD-UBIDS on salaries and allowances below what their counterparts are earning in other public universities. We are therefore absolutely convinced that this intended migration will lead to reduced salaries and allowances of the other workers of SDD-UBIDS.
This discrimination and undermining of staff and the university as a whole must cease henceforth. The SDD-UBIDS was created by an Act of Parliament as a public university and any attempt to reduce its competitiveness will be met with resistance.
We have served notice to the National Labour Commission (NLC) of our intention to embark on a strike action by August 2, 2021 if the attempt by GTEC to migrate the workers prematurely to CAGD’s payroll is not halted and if a clear arrangement for the payment of workers’ salaries from August 2021 is not communicated to us.
Since we have not heard anything from GTEC and the University Management, we the workers’ unions have declared a strike effective today August 2, 2021.
Thank you.
