Public Relations Officer of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), Earl Ankrah, said the striking university lecturers failed to undergo all the required processes before embarking on the industrial strike.
Speaking to JoyNews, the Earl said an industrial strike should have been the last option to be considered.
He said the University Teachers Association (UTAG) did not even notify the National Labour Commission (NLC) before striking.
“At the beginning of negotiations, we signed rules of engagement. Those rules of engagement state that when you have grievances, when things are not going the way in which you want it to go, there are processes you have to follow. You have to go through the Labour Commission, go through arbitration or mediation and certain levels and then you will come to a conclusion, strike is the very last option. UTAG has not exhausted all these processes,” he said.
UTAG has withdrawn its services across the country on Monday, January 10 as a protest against poor service conditions.
A statement issued on Sunday, January 9, by the association directed all members to halt rendering services until the government met their demands.
The statement stated that government has not met the demands of the university teachers association within a specified period agreed by the two parties hence compelling it resort to strike.
“Generally, our members have decried the pittance agreed to be paid as annual research allowance and would want to have government reconsider the payment of a more realistic research allowance as this is critical to our research output, promotion and ultimately national development,” a portion of the release read.
This comes after UTAG embarked on a strike in August 2021 calling on the government to restore its service conditions agreed upon 10 years ago which they said were far better than the current.
The strike action lasted for about a month until it was suspended following a memorandum of understanding signed by the two parties to resort to negotiations.
The strike was suspended on the condition that government will address UTAG's grievances within one month of negotiations.
However, the association has resumed its strike action as it said government has failed to meet its demands.
But the Public Relations Officer of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission accused UTAG of not exhausting all the necessary processes before striking.
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