The University of Ghana Branch of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UG-UTAG) has threatened to embark on an indefinite industrial action effective January 3, 2022.
A Statement issued by the UG-UTAG branch asked the National Executive Committee(NEC) of UTAG to withdraw its communique of 11th November 2021, and duly inform government of UTAG’s rejection of a Memorandum of Agreement(MoA) to accept a Research Allowance of USD 1600 payable in 2024, and Interim Market Premium for 2022.
“We call on all other branch members to support our decision to dissociate ourselves from the UTAG National leadership for entering into a deal that does not completely represent the interest of its membership, except perhaps for themselves only,” UG-UTAG said in its statement.
It would be recalled that on 6th October 2021, the UTAG Negotiation Team, at a meeting with Government representatives, signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) to accept, among others, a Research Allowance of USD 1600 payable in 2024, and a proposal for Government to complete a Labour Market Survey Report to determine the review of the Interim Market Premium by December 2021 for implementation in 2022.
The decision, however, was subject to approval and ratification by all branch members of UTAG as provided under article XI sec 3 of the UTAG Constitution, which stipulates that “[a]ction by NEC to authorize an industrial action or accept or reject a partial or final collective bargaining agreement shall be advisory only and in both instances shall be
subject to a final, direct vote of the regular members.”
Consequently, the University of Ghana branch of UTAG (UG-UTAG), at a meeting held on Friday 17th December 2021, upheld its resolution of 8th October, 2021, which overwhelmingly rejected the 6th October 2021 MoA.
The decision taken by UG-UTAG in its 8th October 2021 resolution, was reportedly supported by six other branch members of UTAG, including KNUST, UDS, UEW, SDD-UBIDS, CKT-UTAS, and UENR.
But in a communique dated 11th November 2021, NEC confirmed acceptance of the MoA
on the basis that the remaining 8 branch members that did not submit written resolutions voted in support of the MoA.
UG-UTAG in a reaction to the development said NEC’s decision to overturn the decision of the generality of members was unconstitutional and undermines the concept of representation, hence the planned strike action in January.
Source: Ghana/Kasapafmonline.com/102.5 Fm
