Technical University Administrators of Ghana backs UTAG’s strike

The Technical University Senior Administrators Association of Ghana (TUSAAG), has thrown its weight behind the ongoing strike by the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG).

TUSAAG says its support of the strike is to express its disapproval of the “selective application of conditions for staff of public universities.”

Members of UTAG embarked on a planned industrial action starting Monday, January 10, 2022, in a bid to demand better conditions of service, which they say are worsening.

In a statement, the Technical University Senior Administrators particularly urged the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) and the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) to be circumspect in its handling of matters involving staff of public tertiary institutions in the country.

“The current approach by GTEC and FWSC to implementing approved conditions of Public Universities smacks of discrimination and ‘divide and rule’ which would continue to cause disharmony in the tertiary environment. We have observed that approved conditions of Public Universities are being implemented in a discriminatory manner to the detriment of staff of the Technical Universities, especially Senior Members (Non-Teaching); and therefore demand that it should be brought to an immediate end if the GTEC and FWSC yearn for harmony in the Public Universities.”

To buttress its point, the Association cited among the other things, the conversion of polytechnics into Technical Universities in August 2016, inconclusive meetings between Public University Staff, the National Labour Commission and the FWSC that have affected activities in Technical University’s nationwide.

“We wish to support the current action of the National Leadership of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG). It is high time staff of the Public Universities were taken seriously and appropriately remunerated”, the administrators further said in a statement.

Find below the full statement from the Administrators

STOP THE SELECTIVE APPLICATION OF CONDITIONS FOR STAFF OF PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES

We wish to call on the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) and the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) to put an immediate stop to the seemingly selective application of approved conditions of the Public Universities.

The current approach by GTEC and FWSC to implementing approved conditions of Public Universities smacks of discrimination and ‘divide and rule’ which would continue to cause disharmony in the tertiary environment. We have observed that approved conditions of Public Universities are being implemented discriminatory to the detriment of staff of the Technical Universities, especially Senior Members (Non-Teaching); and therefore demand that it should be brought to an immediate end if the GTEC and FWSC yearn for harmony in the Public Universities.

Since the conversion of the Polytechnics into Technical Universities in August 2016 following the passage of the Technical Universities Act, 2016 (Act 922) as amended, the Technical Universities (TUs) have not been given their due share of conditions applicable to Public Universities without staff agitating in the form of strike.

Though unhealthy, the GTEC and FWSC made it look as if their actions were in favour of the TUs. The GTEC’s touted ‘anthem’ ‘parity of prestige’, has never been put into practice as far as the TUs are concerned.

It would be recalled that the FWSC in a letter dated 23rd August 2021, revised allowances payable on payroll of Public Universities for Senior Members of the Public Universities with effect from August 2021.

Though the revised allowances are applicable to staff of all the Public Universities in the country, they are being selectively implemented to the neglect of the TUs. As if this was not enough, the GTEC in a divide and rule tactics, excluded Senior Members (Non-Teaching) of the TUs from payment of new rates of electricity, owner-occupier and security allowances in December 2021.

Further, the government and its team, including the GTEC and FWSC, failed to honour a meeting called by the National Labour Commission on 8th December 2021 to resolve these very issues raised by TUSAAG.

These acts of inaction and omissions have given rise to a lot of tension on the campuses of the TUs which may ‘explode’ at any time soon. The uneasy calm on our campuses can no longer be contained if urgent steps are not taken to implement the revised allowances payable on payroll of Public Universities and to rectify all outstanding concerns of staff of the TUs, especially Senior Members (Non-Teaching) before 28th February 2022.