21 Days Strike Notice – UTAG Writes To Government

University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), has served a notice to the National Labour Commission and the government of Ghana over an upcoming strike over poor conditions of service and other matters.

Below is the full notice served by the University Teachers Association of Ghana.

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21 Days Strike Notice

“We wish to serve notice to your high office of our intention to resort to strike as per Sections 159 and 160 of the Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651) due to the following reasons:

1. The slow pace of Negotiations on Conditions of Service (COS) for UTAG Members: The Employer and, by extension, the mandate state institutions have been very slow in completing the negotiations on our Conditions of Service (COS). The snail-pace nature of the negotiations is creating undue pressure and tensions across our Campuses. UTAG has made significant efforts to push for the conclusion of the negotiations on our CoS for implementation from January 2024, but these efforts have not yielded any results. Most importantly, the Employer/Government does not take the negotiations on our CoS seriously, and the Ministry of Finance, in particular, continues sending representatives with no effective mandate and authority to make commitments during the negotiations.

2. Deliberate Distortions of Aspects of Signed Memoranda of Agreements (MoAs): UTAG is very appalled about the deliberate misinterpretations and disrespect to signed MoAs by the Employer. One case in point is the MoA signed on Vehicle Maintenance Allowance (VMA) and Off-Campus Allowance (OCA) following an industrial action by UTAG, GAUA, SSA- UoG and TEWU-GH. Although the Ministry of Finance issued a memo dated 5th August 2022 authorising the payment of the agreed per litre rate of GHS10.99 with the effective date being 1st July 2022, this has since been subjected to deliberate misinterpretations and non-payment. Although arrears have been paid on the GHS10.99 per litre, ironically the government has reverted to paying GHS6.05 per litre. Indeed, the GHS10.99 rate should have been reviewed by now because the current expump rate is over GHS 13. This smacks of bad faith and trust on the part of the Employer.

3. Non-Payment of the Internally Generated Funds (IGFs) Component of the Agreed Online Teaching Support Allowance (OTSA): We signed an agreement with the Employer on 3 ^ (nd) March 2022 that the respective universities shall pay a component of the OTSA from their IGFs. To our dismay, many universities are in arrears, and some have not paid at all. We see this as a variation in our conditions of service to our disadvantage, which we reject. In addition, the OTSA was introduced as a stopgap for the erosion of our market premium (MP) over the years while the government took measures to work towards implementing the 2021 Labour Market Survey to improve our MP. There has been no show from the government side in this regard, and our MP is continuously eroded.

In compliance with the requirements of the Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651) Section 159, which requires either party intending to take strike action or institute a lockout to give written notice to the other party and the Commission within seven days, we are by this letter, magnanimously giving notice to the Employer 21 days as a grace period to address the above-listed concerns of UTAG, or we will proceed immediately on strike on the 22nd day from the date of this letter.

Thank you.

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