Students in universities left stranded by strike
Groups demand better conditions of service from the government
Only seventeen (17) days into the New Year, it appears the attribution that 2022 might just be a Year of Strike Actions may just become a reality.
This is because so far, and with the start of academic calendars across the country, a number of groups have already declared strikes, as well as others on other sectors of the country.
While none of these are new, it is the numbers that have so far been recorded that raises concerns.
GhanaWeb has put together all the major ones here for your reading.
Here they are:
UTAG
The University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) has, since January 3, 2022, been on an indefinite strike, pressing home their demands for better conditions of service.
In a statement ahead of the strike and signed by its president and general secretary, UG-UTAG explained that it was not in support of the decision by national UTAG to sign a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with government that pegged Research Allowance to USD 1600 payable in 2024. Neither did the Association support a proposal for Government to complete a Labour Market Survey Report to determine the review of the Interim Market Premium by December 2021 for implementation in 2022.
“UG-UTAG finds this outcome very strange and in violation of the UTAG Constitution. First, there is no written evidence in support of the decisions made by the 8 universities, unlike the clear and unequivocal manner in which the 7 universities that voted against the MoA expressed themselves through a resolution.
“Further, assuming that evidence to that effect is available (and we subject NEC to strict proof of this), relying on article XVIII sec 2 of the UTAG Constitution, NEC cannot use the decision of the 8 universities to conclude that, based on majority vote, the MoA should be accepted. The article referred to here, provides that “subject to the provisions of this constitution, decisions at all meetings of the Association, particularly of the NEC shall be determined by a simple majority of members present and voting,” parts of the statement read.
TEWU
Although the non-teaching staff of the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) in the Ghana Education Service has already suspended its strike, the group embarked on the commercial action due to non-payment of their Continuous Professional Development(CPD) allowances for two years.
The strike took effect from January 5, 2022, as the Senior High Schools re-opened for academic activities and this included but not limited to the domestic bursars, matrons, cooks, pantry hands, labourers, cleaners, administrators, accountants, librarians, logistics and supply officers, and internal auditors.
The General Secretary of TEWU, Mark Korankye, announced that the strike by the union had been suspended following the commencement of the negotiation process by the committee that was formed to look into their demands.
He said this had come about after a meeting with officials of the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, the Ministry of Education, and the Ghana Education Service (GES).
“The bottom line is that we want the good for our members, that is why we are having to take this decision to suspend the action that have embarked upon just this morning so that the committee can start work
"As per the labour laws and the Labour Act, you cannot negotiate whiles you are on industrial action and that is why leadership thinks that if management now is willing and reedy to accept the committee and make the committee to work, then it is appropriate for us to also put on hold this action, give ourselves sometime within which we expect that the green light will be given for our members to benefit from what they have been denied of all these while.
“They should not call off the strike, they should suspend the action. Suspension in the sense that we have the potential of resuming if nothing comes out of the committee’s work, that is why we call it suspension,” Mark Korankye said.
CETAG
Just around the same time UTAG went on strike, their counterparts, the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG), also declared a strike.
According to CETAG, their strike was in protest to the government’s failure to fulfil its promise in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the leadership of CETAG and the government on Tuesday October 26, 2021.
KATH Anesthetists
This was officially the first strike action of the year, declared on January 1.
The Ghana Association of Certified Registered Anesthetists issued a statement in December 2021 of its intent to lay down their tools from the above date.
In its letter to the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, the Association noted that, “The leadership of the Ghana Association of Certified Registered Anesthetists wish to bring to the attention of your honorable office and other stakeholders that its members cannot continue to provide anesthesia services effective 1st January 2022.”
The Ghana Association of Certified Registered Anesthetists pointed out that the industrial action was due to the Ministry of Health’s failure to address its concerns of changing the title of members from ‘Physician Assistants’ to ‘Certified Registered Anesthetists’.
In Kumasi in particular and at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, this situation bit really hard on the facility, with surgeries that needed patients to be sedated all suspended.
CLOGSAG
With a few days to go, the Civil and Local Government Staff Association, Ghana (CLOGSAG) has issued a notice of an intended nationwide strike from January 20, 2022, over poor conditions of service.
According to CLOGSAG, its unique conditions of service is borne out of the fact that Article 94(3)(b) of the 1992 Constitution bars civil servants from participating in active political activities.
“It is important to note that the institutions whose members are restrained from participating in partisan politics have distinct and enhanced salary structures and other conditions of service”.
“This our request is fair and genuine,” CLOGSAG said in a statement. Read Full Story
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