Strike: Negotiations with SSA-UoG not stalled – Fair Wages and Salaries Commission

The Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) has said negotiations with members of the Senior Staff Association of Universities of Ghana (SSA-UoG) on their conditions of service has not stalled as the Association wants the public to believe.

Members of SSA-UoG on Tuesday, 18 May 2021 declared an indefinite strike and called for a complete withdrawal of services.

They are demanding the payment of Tier 2 pension arrears, award of market premium and non-basic allowance as well as the finalization of negotiation of the condition service.

National Chairman of the association, Zakaria Mohammed warned that members who flout the directive will be sanctioned.

Reacting to the industrial action, FWSC noted in a statement that it has been dealing with the Federation of University Senior Staff Association of Ghana (FUSSAG) on all matters that cover the class of workers to which SSA-UoG belongs.

FWSC noted that it met the leadership of SSA-UoG on 18 February 2021 to continue their engagements on matters relating to their conditions of service and agreed at that meeting to continue the negotiations from where FUSSAG left off, which meant that only three outstanding demands for negotiations namely – non-basic allowance, research allowance and excessive hazard allowance.

FWSC further explained that the non-basic allowance was not part of their original demands and, therefore, work had to commence afresh on that till FWSC made an offer which SSA-UoG turned down.

Also, on the issue of research allowance and excessive hazard allowance, the FWSC noted that it has requested data from the SSA-UoG but they are yet to receive any data.

FWSC, therefore, noted that its negotiations with the SSA-UoG have not stalled and assured all stakeholders that negotiations are ongoing to resolve their concerns.