TEWU gives government two-week ultimatum to address concerns

by Wisdom K.E Hammond · August 26, 2021

TEWU gives the government a two-week ultimatum to address concerns.
Union’s non-basic allowance should be increased by 10 to 15 per cent.
The obvious consequence of labour unrest will hit the country.

To help improve teaching and learning in public universities, the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) has issued the government a two-week ultimatum.

According to the union, authorities must act quickly to address TEWU’s concerns at public universities to avoid additional disruptions.

Mark Dankyira Korankye, TEWU’s General Secretary, expressed his displeasure on Tuesday at a news conference in Accra over the way the Union has been neglected for the past two years regarding their working conditions.

“Since January when we embarked on our industrial action, the National Labour Commission invited us and the other negotiating parties and charged us to go back and re-enter negotiations.”

“However, on February 4, 2022, we re-entered negotiation on two major items, which are the non-basic allowance and the exposure to eminent hazard allowance”, he said.

Although the government team has had several meetings, he added, they have not changed their position on the non-basic allowance, which was previously provided by the Chief of Staff in January 2021, but the Union argued that the rate was not in line with the negotiation concept.

According to him, a Technical Committee was formed on the suggestion of the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations to examine different possibilities and offer recommendations to the Minister on how to proceed with the matter.

The Union’s non-basic allowance should be increased by 10 to 15 percent, according to the Union’s General Secretary, but the government’s inability to execute the recommendations is bringing more harm than good to its members.

“Despite our resolve to pursue constructive engagement with all stakeholders in addressing our concerns, the posture of feet dragging by government agencies, tend to point to the obvious consequence of labour unrest,” he said.

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As a result, he added, the union has complained on more than one occasion about stakeholders’ perception that non-teaching staff problems are secondary in talks about educational policy, terms of service and other interventions in the sector.

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According to him, the perception was formed that only the teacher group was responsible for creating a suitable teaching and learning environment, which was not the case.

Source: Ghana Education News