Strike: Technical Universities in Ghana to re-open without lecturers

Lecturers in Ghana’s technical universities have declared another indefinite strike in protest of non-payment of allowance.

The action takes effect today, January 6, 2020, as school reopens in the coming days.

The leadership of the Technical University Teachers Association of Ghana (TUTAG), says government has “refused to fully comply” with the ruling by the National Labour Commission (NLC) to ensure that members of the association started receiving allowances due them from December 2019, January 2020 and February 2020.

At a press conference in Accra, TUTAG cited salary discrepancies in December 2019, without recourse to their leadership.

The lecturers also accused the government of not upholding parity in tertiary education.

“The government is doing everything to create a second-tier public university even though the NTC [National Tertiary Council] professes parity of prestige”, said TUTAG’s National President, Dr. Solomon Keelson.

He added that TUTAG shall only call off the strike “upon the fulfillment of the National Labour Commission ruling on the 28th of October 2019.”

The strike could disrupt teaching, invigilation and the academic calendar in general.

Previous protests

The Association in October 2019 declared a sit-down strike to demand payment of their allowances.

Technical University Administrators Association of Ghana (TUAAG) also joined the 21-day old strike to also demand full migration onto the public universities’ pay structure.

Students in these eight universities began feeling the pinch as they were left to their own fate on campus.

On December 27, 2019, TUTAG announced a resumption of their strike action after initially calling off their October strike.

The strike was, however, called off in less than six hours.

Source: Jonathan Ofori, Daily Mail GH