The national executive council of the Technical University Senior Association of Ghana (TUSAAG) has appealed to its members across the country to suspend their strike, which was scheduled for June 1.
TUSAAG on May 19 threatened to go on a nationwide strike if the government did not address its concerns with the conditions of service of its members by the end of May 2023, following a National Labour Commission’s (NLC) ruling to further engage with the employer.
The Association was demanding, among other things, the restoration of fuel allowance for faculty officers at Technical Universities, the implementation of entertainment allowance for faculty accountants at Technical Universities, and the appropriate placement of senior non-teaching staff at Technical Universities.
However, the NLC intervened and directed that the parties, being TUSAAG and the employer, “should continue to engage on all the issues raised and report back to the National Labour Commission on the outcome of the engagement on January 18, 2023, at 12 noon.”
The parties engaged and reported back on May 26, to the NLC as directed in the Commission’s January 18 ruling, but the NLC once again directed TUSAAG to “suspend the intended strike action until the end of August 2023, to allow parties to resolve all pending issues.”
TUSAAG was unhappy with the NLC’s consistent rulings, which it described as “tardy and very belated, especially where the same NLC in an earlier decision, had set January 18, 2023, as a deadline for the resolution of the same issues.”
It added that the NLC’s decisions were exacerbating “the financial and social conditions of our members who need to be placed in the appropriate grade on the salary/allowances structure,” and so they were no longer going to follow the Commission’s directives.
The Minister of Education intervened, and TUSAAG, in a June 1 statement, appealed to its members to hold on with any intended actions until the executives meet with the Minister on Monday, June 5, 2023.
