Striking Technical University lecturers to starts work on Monday

Dr Solomon Keelson, the National Chairman of Technical Universities Teachers Association of Ghana (TUTAG), said lecturers will officially start academic work on Monday, November 4, after the three-week strike.

He said even though the Association had suspended the strike and resumed work on Tuesday, October 29, some of the students had left campus, hence the decision to start lectures on Monday.

Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Dr Keelson said technical universities in the country would extend the academic calendar to make up for the contact hours lost during the strike action.

He said the non-teaching staff had also gone on strike to sympathise with them and expressed the hope that their meeting with the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission and the National Labour Commission (NLC) would resolve the issue.

TUTAG went on industrial action over poor conditions of service, following the conversion of polytechnics to technical universities.

The strike left thousands of students in the eight technical universities stranded and adversely affected the schedule for teaching and learning.

On Monday, October 28, the NLC in its ruling urged TUTAG to immediately call off their strike and return to work.

It further urged government to pay TUTAG members who qualify for electricity, rent, maintenance, off-campus and security allowances at the end of December, 2019.

The Commission, on the matter of entertainment and fuel allowances for the university lecturers, said those “shall be paid to deserving office holders in December 2019.”

“The back pay of the above allowances, effective August 2019, shall be paid in January and February 2020,” the Commission further ruled, urging the parties to go back and negotiate and “act in good faith at all times.”

Some students of Accra Technical University who spoke with GNA commended government and stakeholders for the swift resolution of the issues.

Mr Shadrack Kumi, a student, called for sustained solutions to their problems to prevent any future strike, which would delay academic work.