The Chief Executive Officer of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), Dr George Smith-Graham, has questioned the basis of the ongoing strike by university senior staff unions, insisting that overtime work is not compulsory and cannot be demanded by workers.
Speaking in an interview on Citi Prime News, Dr Smith-Graham said the overtime and call-in allowance structure under the Single Spine Pay Policy has existed since 2010 and has not been altered.
He explained that under the policy, overtime applies to junior staff, while senior staff are entitled to a call-in allowance, stressing that the arrangement has been in place for more than a decade.
“The Single-Spine Pay Policy started in 2010 where we had these unified conditions of service, what we refer to as the categories two and three allowances. In these allowances we have what we call the overtime and the call-in. Overtime is only meant for the junior staff, and the senior staff receive the call-in allowance. So, they cannot say we varied any conditions of service.
“This has been there since 2010. We need to understand that overtime is not compulsory therefore I am surprised that they will say they are going on strike because they want to do overtime. You cannot force yourself to do overtime on any management. Overtime has to be determined by a superior officer. Can you imagine that they are on strike and so they are not working for the eight hours we are paying them. I am surprised the university management has allowed them to continue this strike,” he said.
His comments come amid an indefinite strike declared by the Senior Staff Association of the University of Ghana (SSA-UoG), the Federation of Universities Senior Staff Associations of Ghana (FUSSAG), and the Teachers and Educational Workers’ Union (TEWU-TUC), which took effect on Tuesday, February 3.
The unions argue that the FWSC has replaced overtime allowances with a “call-in allowance”, a move they say breaches a 2021 agreement and undermines the rights and expectations of university staff.
Beyond the overtime dispute, the unions are also demanding the payment of salary arrears owed to staff of institutions recently upgraded to full university status, as well as five months of outstanding Tier Two pension contributions.
