The Senior Staff Association-Universities of Ghana (SSA-UoG) has announced that the association will embark on an indefinite strike should the government refuse to pay the tier-2 pension contributions of members by Monday, January 15, 2024.
In a statement released on the 4th of January 2024, the association demanded that the government should, as a matter of urgency, pay all outstanding debt and contributions together with the appropriate interest from February to December 2023 using the three percent penalty rates as stipulated by the Pension’s Act, Act 766, Section 64.
In an interview with UniversNews on the matter, the SSA-UoG National President, Isaac Donkoh revealed that in the event that the government refuses to meet their demands, the association will withdraw services they provide from all campuses in the country.
“We are not happy, and if nothing is done about it by 15th of this month, next week, Monday, then we are going to withdraw all our services across all campuses in Ghana. The strike will be an indefinite strike. We cannot state a time period for the strike, but we will be on strike until our concerns are addressed.”
He also expressed his disappointment over the unfair working conditions of his members and called for the immediate retraction of letters from the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) and the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), dated November 7 and November 20, 2023, respectively.
“Our members will come and work from morning to evening, or the number of hours that are to be engaged, even weekends and public holidays, which by the Constitution and labor acts we must be given double pay, and then what is duly supposed to be paid to me you cannot pay because someone is trying to interpret the law according to his own understanding.”
“Also, the impact of such a letter is very negative in the sense that it is against the Labor Act and also against our collective bargaining certificate and conditions of service that have been signed since 2019 between labor and government, so we are surprised that they are now giving a contrary directive to our own agreement between them and the association. They must withdraw that letter with immediate effects.”
Isaac Donkoh added that the association has not had any feedback from GTEC and the FWSC over the looming indefinite strike next week.
“For now, we have not heard anything from them. We hope and pray that by close of Friday we hear something positive from them. So, we are on standby, and if they ready to engage with us, we are also ready to do the same.”
He further called on all members to keep calm and trust in the leadership of the association as they fight for their better conditions of service.
“They should keep calm and trust in the leadership because we are not going to disappoint them. We are also not going to sit down for anybody or a group of individuals to violate our rights. Our conditions of service have been negotiated for and duly signed between the association and government, and nobody, in whatever capacity, can tamper with them.”
“So we are totally in charge of the situation, and by next Monday, if nothing is heard from government, we will give them the go-ahead to sit at home until the right is done.”
