NLC summons UCC senior staff and management over strike action

The National Labour Commission (NLC) has summoned the University of Cape Coast (UCC) chapter of the Senior Staff Association – Universities of Ghana (SSA-UoG, UCC) and management of the school to appear before it on Wednesday over the association’s industrial action.

The NLC is seeking to resolve the tension between the association and the management over conditions of service which culminated in an indefinite strike on Thursday.

The association is up in arms against the management of the school for failing to address a raft of grievances including appointments, promotions, non-payment of negotiated allowances and representation on the University Council since May 2022.

Mr Sandy Kumi-Sinatra, the Chairman of the Association, registering his displeasure at a presser, said management had disregarded numerous reminders of their concerns and failed to provide relevant source documents to back the “unfair practices being meted out to Senior Staff cadre”.

He recalled that the NLC and the Ministry of Education in 2022 intervened and directed the management of the school to engage the association to resolve the issues, but very little was achieved.

“Regrettably, the only engagement management of the University has undertaken is to request for the SSA-UoG and UCC Local, to submit proposals for some of the issues contained in a petition to Management and Council.

“Management has not acknowledged receipt of our correspondence or responded to same since Tuesday, August 09, 2022.

“We find this unfortunate act as managerial shenanigans to further aggravate the plight of the senior staff cadre. Is it a crime to be a Senior Staff of the University of Cape Coast?” he queried.

Mr Kumi-Sinatra, therefore, accused UCC Management of overstepping its boundaries in the labour laws and appealed to the government to intervene.

In an interview, Mr Kumi-Sinatra maintained that they would not call off the strike before meeting the NLC.

He stressed that unless they found the NLC’s ruling favourable, nothing would move them to return to the post, stressing that they were not willing to back down on their action unless the Commission ruled in their favour.

He explained that whatever they were asking for was the standard and being implemented everywhere and that it was only a matter of implementation which their management was not doing.