News:
Hon Baffour Awuah
February 17, 2022
The Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Baffour Awuah said government is ever willing to continue negotiations with the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) to find a lasting solution to their grievances.
Speaking on the floor of the House on Thursday few minutes after a meeting between UTAG, the Select Committee on Education, the Education Minister and the Labour Minister, he said “government has acted in good faith and is ever willing to continue negotiations with UTAG. We want due process to be followed, and I have given them assurance that, if today they call off the strike, I wouldn’t mind asking that we lock ourselves in a room d make sure that we finish negotiations before we come out”.
He noted that government has demonstrated its resolve to jaw-jaw with the UTAG and assured the House and the Country that government will work with UTAG to bring life back into the universities.
UTAG has been on strike for more than a month over conditions of service and all plead to get them back to the classroom has failed.
UTAG wants government to restore their 2012 conditions of service, which pegged the monthly income of entry-level lecturers at $2,084.
The Association has complained that the current arrangement has reduced its members’ basic premiums to $997.84.
Following the resolve of UTAG to continue the strike until their demands are met, the National Labour Commission (NLC) sought for an interlocutory injunction for UTAG to suspend the strike while negotiations continue.
On Monday, the Labour Division of the Accra High Court granted the plea and placed an injunction on UTAG’s strike until the Court determines the substantive application by the NLC.
Ghanamps.com