The Technical University Teachers Association of Ghana (TUTAG) has declared an indefinite strike effective January 6, 2020, in protest of the non-payment of allowances due to its members following the conversion of polytechnics to technical universities.
According to the association, the 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.
The strike will disrupt teaching, invigilation and the marking of scripts in technical universities.
Addressing the media in Accra, National President of TUTAG, Dr. Solomon Keelson, said: “salaries of December 2019 were paid without the said allowances with no official communication to that effect.”
Dr. Keelson 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.”
He added that TUTAG shall only call off the strike “upon the fulfilment of the National Labour Commission ruling on the 28th of October 2019.”
Past strikes
The association embarked on a sit-down strike in October 2019 in protest of the non-payment of allowances for about three weeks.
Technical Universities Administrators Association of Ghana (TUAAG) also joined the strike demanding full benefits of migration onto the public universities’ salary structure.
The students bore the brunt of the strike as they were left stranded when academic work was halted.
On December 27, 2019 TUTAG on Friday declared an immediate resumption of its suspended strike after initially calling off the strike started in October.
But the December 27 strike was called off after about six hours.
The Technical University Teachers Association of Ghana (TUTAG) accused government of trying to use the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) as a channel to buy time and scare the association from further demanding what is due its members.
According to the association, the government has “refused to fully comply” with the ruling by the National Labour Commission (NLC) to ensure that members of the association received allowances due them from December 2019, January 2020 and February 2020.
