The National Labour Commissioner (NLC), has withdrawn its lawsuit against the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), following UTAG’s suspension of its industrial action on Wednesday [August 18, 2021].
The NLC was in court challenging the legality of UTAG’s strike, which had threatened the stability of the academic calendar of public universities. But UTAG had remained belligerent, accusing the NLC of bad faith in its dealings with the teacher union.
In Court today [Thursday], the Lawyer for the NLC, Yehoda Kotey, informed the Court about the memorandum of understanding reached during Wednesday’s meeting involving UTAG, Employment and Labour Relations Ministry, Education Ministry and the Fair wages and Salaries Commission.
The University Teachers Association of Ghana says they have also suspended a 17-day old strike after the National Labor Commission withdrew a legal suit against it in court.
According to the national president of the Association, Professor Charles Marfo, who spoke to JoyNews, the leadership of UTAG are going to inform their members of the decision they have taken to call off the strike. He expressed hope that members will ratify their decision.
UTAG leadership, on Wednesday, August 18, signed a memorandum of agreement with government to call off the strike and continue negotiation, but on condition that all legal suits initiated by government against them are withdrawn.
NLC has since withdrawn the suit, and the Labor Division of the Accra High Court has struck out the case.
“If you look at the document we signed with government, there was processes to withdraw all cases against UTAG, and UTAG has also taken steps to withdraw the strike.
“It is necessary that the people whose mandate we used are approached; we need to respectfully inform them of the document we have signed; I believe they will sanction that”, Professor Charles Marfo noted.
Professor Charles Marfo also explained that the various public Universities will now have to decide on suspended examinations.
The University of Ghana and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) suspended their end of semester exams over the strike.
“Normally, this have to be the decision of management. However, I know it’s because of our strike that they suspended exams, so obviously now that we have suspended it, they will put plans in place for it to happen”, Professor Marfo explained.
Meanwhile, some students have been calling on University management to give them more time to prepare for the exams after 2 weeks of the UTAG strike.
National President of UTAG Professor Charles Marfo says the position of the students is understandable.
“I can understand them, and I know management will take their plea into consideration.”
UTAG has been on strike since Monday 2nd August and has been demanding a little over 2,000 Dollars as entry-level salary for lecturers. According to them, this was an agreement they reached with government in 2012 as part of the Single Spine Salary Structure.
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Credit: Citi News