The University Laboratory Technologists and Technicians Association (ULTTA) has been launched at the University of Ghana’s Great Hall, Accra on Wednesday 8, 2021.
The ULTTA Chair, Mrs. Joyce Duah in her speech at the inauguration, touted the achievements of the association since its establishment in 2019.
She said it has “created visibility of its members and contributed to the competence of the various laboratories to enable effective teaching, learning and research.”
Also, “there have been continuous efforts by its leadership to help build the capacity of its members in the College of Health Sciences and College of Basic and Applied Sciences through workshops and seminars on laboratory quality management, ISO standards, the use and maintenance of various sophisticated modern equipment among others,” she stated.
A Patron of the association, Professor Sandaw Mark Yidana, said the establishment of the association will help to achieve one of the university’s key strategic plans in being “a world-class research-intensive university over the next decade.”
“You know that we cannot have high-quality research without a world-class laboratory, so it is for this reason that I am happy that you have congregated yourself to be able to help the university to champion itself,” he said.
The ULTTA Chair explained that the association has taken steps in strengthening the capacity of the university for world-class and intensive research and revenue generation in terms of providing laboratory services to the university and the public at large.
“We shall continue to advance these efforts in these and many other areas,” she reassured.
The University Laboratory Technologists and Technicians Association chair further called for support in accessing its hazard allowance for its members, which is “presently being pursued at the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission.”
“We all know that there are some chemical, biological and physical sources of hazards that pose a wide range of health hazards to those who are exposed to these sources on a daily basis”.
She explained that “long-term exposure to chemical hazards such as silica dust (commonly used in desiccators found in every laboratory) has been shown to increase risk of heart disease, stroke and high blood pressure.”
She said there is therefore the need for personnel in the laboratory to be compensated for this risk.
“We, therefore, urge management and the unions to work hard for the government to accept to implement the excessive exposure to health hazard allowance.”