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The Technical University Teachers Association of Ghana (TUTAG) has declared an indefinite strike over the delays in addressing their conditions of service demand.
TUTAG made the declaration in a statement dated November 18, 2022, and jointly signed by the National President, Prof Dr Engineer Collins Ameyaw and Dr Abubakari Zakari, the General Secretary.
Their industrial action comes after the association had last week threatened to withdraw their services if the government fails to honour the Codified Conditions of Service of members, which have been outstanding since 2016.
“We refer to our letter on the subject ‘New Rate of Fuel Allowance For Members Of UTAG And TUTAG’ with reference number TUTAG/GTEC/02, dated 26th September 2022, addressed to the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) and copied to the Minister of Education, Minister of Finance, Chairman of the National Labour Commission (NLC) and the Chief Executive Officer of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission.
“We wish to state that issues raised in the above letter have since not received any attention from the aforementioned government agencies,” the statement said.
According to TUTAG, the concerns expressed in the said letter have not been treated with the seriousness they deserve hence the decision to strike with immediate effect.
“In view of all these, and upon further deliberations by the National and Chapter Executives of TUTAG, we declare an indefinite strike action which takes immediate effect.”
Below is TUTAG’s full statement to the effect of their strike
We refer to our letter on the subject “NEW RATE OF FUEL ALLOWANCE FOR MEMBERS OF UTAG AND TUTAG” with reference number TUTAG/GTEC/02 dated 26th September 2022, addressed to the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) and copied to the Minister of Education, Minister of Finance, Chairman of the National Labour Commission (NLC) and the Chief Executive Officer of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission.
We wish to state that issues raised in the above letter have since not received any attention from the
aforementioned government agencies. TUTAG views the inaction by these agencies as an indication that the concerns expressed in our letter have not been treated with the seriousness they deserve.
We also refer to the NLC’s directive of 2nd September 2022 under the subject “RE: IN THE MATTER
OF NOTIFICATION OF INTENDED STRIKE ACTION BY TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY TEACHERS’ASSOCIATION OF GHANA (TUTAG)” with reference number NLC/TUTAG/2022/21 which was in relation to TUTAG’s demand for the implementation of the negotiated internally generated fund-related conditions of service.
The directive reads: “That the Minister of Finance (MOF) is hereby directed to ensure payment in January 2023 and should also ensure that it issues the necessary letters to the various University Councils within a reasonable time to make budgetary provisions in the budget to take care of payments on the effective date.
Even though January 2023 is less than two months away, and most universities are done with budget preparations for 2023, the Minister of Finance has still not issued the letter as directed by the NLC. It is important to state that a certain letter (electronic version), supposedly written by the FWSC, was shown to the President at NLC, the content of the said letter was in sharp contrast with the negotiations done with the Governing Councils of the various universities. Indeed, our checks from the listed recipients indicate that the said defective letter had not even been received.
Further, reference is made to issues raised in our letter under the subject “NOTIFICATION OF INDUSTRIAL ACTION” with reference number TUTAG/NLC/02 dated 10th October 2022, some of which have still not been resolved by the government agencies.
In view of all these, and upon further deliberations by the National and Chapter Executives of TUTAG, we declare an indefinite strike action which takes immediate effect.
