The Association say if the government doesn’t respond by close of day, they will return to striking
• The Senior Staff Association of Universities in Ghana have served notice that they could go back on strike
• This follows what they say is the non-commitment of the government in meeting their demands for payment of their tier-2 allowances
• The group initially declared a strike on May 18, this year
A full-blown strike could be in the offing for the Senior Staff Association of Universities of Ghana, should the government fail to send a communication to the group with regards their tier-2 arrears by close of working day today.
This, the Association says, is the deadline that was set by the government itself, following which they suspended their earlier strike action, and the failure to live up to it result in a nationwide laying down of their tools.
“If the deadline elapses and nothing is heard from the government, we are going to embark on a full-blown strike… They came out with their own deadline that looking at the issue they can use 30th June to 19th of July to settle all the matters which were agreed with and we suspended our strike. So, if government is not able to honor its promise, why should we continue to be waiting? We have to go back to strike,” he said.
Zakaria Mohammed bemoaned what he describes as the government’s attempts to ignore their demand for a favorable condition of service.
“To be frank, government is being very snobbish on our side to all the demands that we have been making and government has been taking senior staff of the universities for granted for far too long,” the National Chairman of the association, Zakaria Mohammed, said, reports citinewsroom.com.
It will be recalled that on May 18, 2021, the group declared a strike over the failure of the government to pay its members their pension contributions under the tier-2 arrangement.
As part of their demands, the members of the Association demanded that the government awards it with market premium and non-basic allowance, as well as the finalization of negotiations of their conditions of service, the report added.
On Wednesday, June 9, 2021, the National Labour Commission and the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) met with the leadership of the senior staff in an attempt to bring a finality to their concerns, leading to them calling off the strike.
That however, has not been enough, as the group believes that the government, on their part, have not shown commitment to the agreements reached that day and for which reason they could return to laying down their tools.
