The Senior Staff Association of Universities in Ghana has accused the government of failing to address their complaints about their unfavorable working circumstances, which prompted them to go on strike in May.
Following a meeting with the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, the strike was called off on June 11 with assurances that all outstanding issues would be resolved.
However, the group claims that a month after returning to work, they have yet to receive any response from government representatives on the problem..
The National Chairman of the Association, Zakaria Mohammed, said members of the Association will not hesitate to lay down their tools again if the government fails to heed their demands.
“Following our deliberations with Fair Wages [and Salaries Commission] which led us to call off our strike, we were informed that our demands would be sent to the government and that they would get back to us in a week’s time. Now our case is that since that agreement, we haven’t heard from the government. Even with the tier 2 pension arrears, the interest computation has not been done. No letter has come from the government.”
“In the negotiations that we are engaged in, we still do not know what percentage the government is giving us. So what was the purpose of even calling off the strike? So we are warning the government that if this is going to be one of the failed promises, then this time around, we are going back to basics and now that we have increased our membership to 14 universities, we will ask all of them to go on strike.”
The Association declared a strike on May 18, 2021, over the failure of the government to pay its members Tier 2 pension contributions.
Members of the association were asking for the award of market premium and non-basic allowance, as well as the finalisation of negotiations of their conditions of service.
The National Labour Commission and the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) met with the leadership of the senior staff on Wednesday, June 9, 2021, in a bid to resolve their grievances.
The union was forced to call off its strike as a result of this.
The organization is concerned, though, since it believes the administration has not demonstrated sufficient commitment to addressing their concerns.
source: citinewsroom
