The Ghana Association of University Administrators (GAUA) has declared a nationwide strike to demand better conditions of service from the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission(GTEC) and the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission(FWSC).
It will be recalled that on January 20, 2024, GAUA threatened to take action if the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) and FWSC failed to address the same concerns of university senior staff.
Although the National Labour Commission (NLC) has invited the leadership for a meeting on Wednesday, January 31, the General Secretary of the association, Richard Afriyie, revealed in an interview that the strike had begun today.
“We have directed our people to lay down their tools until further notice. So until then, we are beginning it. There hasn’t been any disregard for any directive. We have been asked to appear before NLC to discuss the matter on Wednesday”.
“We have not yet gone to appear before them to know what is in store for us. And we cannot just call off by any opinion or based on any emotion or whatever. It is a collective decision we have taken, and we need to comply with that,” he said.
GAUA, in a statement issued earlier, said the current agitation among university employees was attributed to the attitude of the GTEC and FWSC to unilaterally disregard the conditions of service and negotiation machinery to issue directives that make university employees worse off.
“GAUA caution GTEC and FWSC to respect the conditions of service and negotiated outcomes to preserve industrial peace in the public universities”.
“We wish to serve notice, and notice is hereby served, that any delays in resolving all outstanding issues by GTEC and FWSC will result in GAUA similarly laying down her tools and joining the strike action,” it stated.
This follows an ongoing strike action by other university associations.
The Senior Staff Association of Public Universities in Ghana (SSA-UoG) and the Federation of Universities Senior Staff (FUSSAG) declared an indefinite nationwide strike on Wednesday, January 17, 2024, over the government’s disregard for their welfare.
According to the associations, their calls for the payment of their two-tier pension and overtime allowance requests have gone unheeded, resulting in the strike.