Education Committee to meet UTAG today over ongoing strike

Parliament’s Select Committee on Education is expected to meet the leadership of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) today, February 17, 2022, over the latter’s ongoing strike.

The Committee met UTAG on February 14, hoping to convince the lecturers to call off the industrial action which has entered its sixth week.

Several meetings between government and UTAG in the last few weeks have ended in the stalemate amid an imminent shutdown of public universities if the strike exceeds 31 days.

The National Labour Commission, after an appeal, secured an interlocutory injunction against the strike by UTAG.

However, UTAG says it is yet to assess the court order from Tuesday’s ruling.

Background

UTAG members across the country went on strike on January 10, to protest the current conditions of service.

The are asking government to restore the conditions of service agreed upon in 2012.

The 2012 conditions of service pegged the Basic plus Market Premium of a lecturer at $2,084.42.

Current arrangements pegs members’ basic premiums at $997.84.

The National Labour Commission declared the lecturers’ strike illegal and dragged them to court.

The Court subsequently asked the feuding factions to settle the impasse out of court after which it okayed the NLC’s injunction application against UTAG’s strike.