Gov’t remains committed to NLC ruling – NCTE

By
Eunice Hilda Ampomah, GNA

Accra, Jan. 8, GNA –
Government has no intention to ignore the National Labour Commission (NLC)
ruling between it and the Technical University Teachers Association, the
National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) said on Wednesday.

The NCTE in a
statement signed by Professor M. Salifu, the Executive Secretary, said that
Government remained resolutely committed to the cause of the Technical
Universities and the broader Technical and Vocational Education and Training
reform agenda and would not do anything to undermine that.

“Finally, for
avoidance of doubt, we want the rank and file of TUTAG members and the public
to understand that Government remains resolutely committed to the cause of the
Technical Universities and the broader Technical and Vocational Education and
Training reform agenda and will not do anything that will undermine it,” it
said.

The NCTE also was of
the firm conviction that the ruling did not obviate the need for any required
due diligence. .

The statement
followed declaration of a strike action by the TUTAG to force government to implement
the NLC Ruling based on an allegation that “Government had ignored the ruling
and was using NCTE to put an impediment on the way of implementation.”

“This allegation is
most unfortunate as it is far from the truth.

“To start with, we
wish to make it categorically clear that neither the NCTE nor any member of the
Government’s side that has been dealing with TUTAG on this whole issue of
allowances, as far as we know, has ignored the NLR Ruling.

“To claim also that
the NCTE is being used by Government to create impediments in the way of
payment of the allowances is to attempt to smear Government’s unflinching
commitment to the Technical Universities and also fail to appreciate the
statutory role of the NCTE in such an exercise.”

According to the
statement, at the heart of the current agitations were two sets of allowances
such as ‘Responsibility and Entertainment for office holders and various
others, including Vehicle Maintenance, Fuel, Rent and Owner-Occupier, among
others for stated categories of staff.

“Under pressure to
expedite action on the migration of Technical Universities onto the Public
Universities Payroll, the Controller and Accountant General paid the Technical
Universities salaries and Interim Market Premium at the rate approved for all
public Universities, as the first step, at the end of September 2019, but
effective August 2019, admittedly, without the allowances.”

Considering that
both sets of allowances (for office holders and other staff) needed prior
validation to confirm entitled beneficiaries as a requirement of due process,
it was decided to tackle them in the next step, after demonstrating the
commitment to-the full migration by paying the market premium. 

The other reason was
to enable the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission to carry out an outstanding
rationalization of the Responsibility and Entertainment Allowances for office
holders across all public Universities.

“Unfortunately,
notwithstanding the fact that the rationale for paying the salaries and Interim
Market Premium first was known to TUTAG, they still declared strike action in
protest on October 7, 2019,” the statement noted.

It added that the
NCTE had stated and severally reiterated its resolve to ensure that the
Technical Universities were set-up on the same quality standards as the
traditional public Universities, albeit with a unique niche mandate.

It was on the basis
of the desired equivalent standards that Government committed to extending same
general conditions of service, including compensation to staff of the Technical
Universities.

The statement noted
that NCTE was happy to confirm that the payments to the validated office
holders had since been duly made.

“Much earlier in
August, and for the first time, Book and Research Allowances had also been paid
to entitled TU staff at same rates for public Universities. The commitment of
the Government side to the “parity of prestige” principle cannot
therefore be faulted. The only caveat is that everything has to be subject to
the required due process.”

GNA