The Senior Staff Association of the Universities of Ghana (SSAUoG) has announced that it would strike for an extended period of time beginning today, July 13.
The group is made up of administrative professionals from Ghana's numerous institutions.
A trustee of the Association, James Maluna Banoeng, said the Association will publicly declare its strike at a news conference later today in an interview with Accra-based 3FM on Wednesday.
At the University of Ghana at Legon's main entrance, a news conference will be held.
We are inviting all media outlets to the strike announcement, which will be made at 10 a.m. today outside the front gate of the University of Ghana. I'm not going to let the cat out of the bag just yet. A national chairman is scheduled to deliver Mr. Benoeng said, "the announcement."
The Association's notice intensifies the already-present labour discontent.
The Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT), the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), and the Teachers and Education Workers Union (TEWU) have currently stopped working because the government has not paid them a cost-of-living allowance of 20% of their basic salaries (COLA).
In light of this development, government negotiations were abandoned by representatives of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and the National Graduate Association of Teachers (NAGRAT) due to their demand for a COLA.
The two groups said that the administration had betrayed their trust by pushing them to end their strike before talks. "The government side is not prepared to restart discussions until the teacher unions call off the strike, as shown by their request and indication that we end our strike before conversations start. This is a violation of trust since they have held the entire organised labour as hostage.
NAGRAT President Angel Carbonu told the reporters on Tuesday, "Right now since we are undesired, before they even walk us out of the meeting, we are walking out of the meeting ourselves.
The said meeting has been postponed indefinitely in the interim.
The adjournment, according to Bright Wereko-Brobbey, deputy minister of employment and labour relations, was brought on by some unions' unwillingness to end their strike before talks could begin.
We've had to adjourn the meeting since both the government and labour believe that we cannot accomplish this while a party is on strike. It has been decided that we will separate to have private conversations. They end the strike, and we get together once more," he told Joy News.
At the meeting were additional government representatives as well as the Deputy Minister of Employment and Labor Relations, Bright Wereko-Brobbey, and the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.
He stated that the meeting would be held again later in the week to continue the discussions.
This is the second time that talks between the administration and the teacher unions have stalled without a resolution. Since last Tuesday, the teachers have been on strike.