The leadership of the Senior Staff Association of Universities of Ghana has threatened a full-blown strike if the government fails to communicate plans to pay interest on their tier-2 arrears by close of day today, Monday, July 19, 2021.
According to them, the government’s deadline to resolve their concerns elapses today and yet there seems to be no headway in sight as far as their issues are concerned.
National Chairman of the Association, Zakaria Mohammed, said members in all 14 public universities are ready to lay down their tools by the close of day today should they hear nothing from the government.
“If the deadline elapses and nothing is heard from the government, we are going to embark on a full-blown strike. To be frank, government is being very snubbish on our side to all the demands that we have been making and government has been taking senior staff of the universities for granted for far too long.
“They came out with their own deadline that they are looking into our issues from 30th June to 19th; which we agreed and suspended our earlier strike. So if government is not able to honour its own promise, why should we continue waiting? We have to go back to strike,” he said.
The Association declared a strike on May 18, 2021, over the failure of the government to pay its members Tier 2 pension contributions.
Members of the Association were asking for the award of market premium and non-basic allowance, as well as the finalisation of negotiations of their conditions of service.
The National Labour Commission and the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission met with the leadership of the senior staff on Wednesday, June 9, 2021, in a bid to resolve their grievances.
This compelled the Association to call off its strike.
However, the group is agitated because it feels the government has not shown enough commitment to address their concerns, hence the latest threat.
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