Students at the Accra Technical University (ATU) have registered their displeasure with the ongoing strike by the Technical University Teachers Association Ghana (TUTAG).
Leadership of TUTAG declared a nationwide indefinite strike on Friday, November 18th, 2022, over the government’s failure to honor the Codified Conditions of Service of members, which have been outstanding since 2016.
President of Accra Technical University Students’ Representative Council (ATU-SRC), Terry Ofori tells Univers News that strike has left students of ATU frustrated, as “access to academic records needed for the application of certain scholarships amongst others have been denied”. He also pleaded with the government to bring finality to the issue of inadequate Conditions of Services of teachers which seems to be a major trigger to most strikes.
“We are already lacking after issues with Covid 19 came up, where we had to adopt an online mode of learning before finally coming back to the classroom, and it is really affecting our academic performances. “So, we urge the government to come and intervene, they should come to our aid as students”. He said.
ABOUT TUTAG STRIKE:
The leadership of the Technical University Teachers Association of Ghana (TUTAG) declared an indefinite strike action over concerns about conditions of service on November 18, 2022.
TUTAG had already given out threats to this effect if the government failed to honour the Codified Conditions of Service of members, which have been outstanding since 2016.
The issues raised which were addressed to the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), 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 have since not received any attention from the aforementioned government agencies.
BELOW IS THE FULL STATEMENT BY TUTAG
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.
Story Written By: Nana Kwegyirba Koomson & Afua Adwubi Wiafe Akenteng
