POWAG asks for immediate refund

The leadership of the Polytechnic Workers Association, Ghana (POWAG), has directed the Controller and Accountant General’s Department to urgently remit monthly dues deducted from members’ salaries to their respective accounts to prevent a collision cause.

The National President of POWAG, Nana Kwapong Offei-Boahene, said more than 1,500 members of the Union, who broke away from the Tertiary Educational Workers Union (TEWU), had not been remitted their monthly dues deducted from their salaries by the CAGD for some time now.

“In view of this, the leadership of POWAG has issued an ultimatum to the CAGD to remit their monthly dues to them latest by the end of November this year, or else we would advice ourselves accordingly,” he said.

Nana Offei-Boahene told the GNA on the sidelines of the Union’s National Biennial Congress at the Takoradi Polytechnic, in the Western Region, that the dues represented two percent of their basic salaries.

He, therefore, appealed to the Conference of Rectors of Polytechnics and managements of the 10 polytechnics to take urgent steps to resolve the matter to ensure peaceful co-existence and industrial harmony.

Meanwhile, the President of POWAG, expressed dismay over the undue delay by the National Pension Regulatory Authority(NPRA) to register the Ghana Polytechnic Occupational Pension Scheme even though it had finished selecting various Fund Administrators to manage the funds of the Scheme.

Against this backdrop, Nana Offei-Boahene, appealed to the government to impress upon the NPRA to, as a matter of urgency, register the scheme to ensure the welfare of Polytechnic workers.

Nana Offei-Boahene gave the assurance that the Union would promote the economic, social, occupational, educational and cultural interests of members in line with their fundamental human rights.

He explained that the era of resolving industrial conflicts with violent acts was over and, therefore, pledged to seek the welfare of members through dialogue and recommendations to managements for amicable settlement of issues militating against them.

The Chairman of Conference of Rectors of Polytechnics, Professor Nicolas Nsowah-Nuamah, who chaired the function, assured them that the Rectors of the Polytechnics would meet with the Finance Minister and other relevant stakeholders to address their grievances.

POWAG is one of the unions in Polytechnics in the country.

The membership, which stands at 1,846, emerged from TEWU in 2013, and was registered as a trade union on 2nd June, 2014, in accordance with the Labour Act 2003, Act 651.

A seven-member National Executive was sworn into office to steer the affairs of the union for the next three years.

They include Nana Kwapong Offei-Boahene, Chairman, Ayarik A. John, Vice-chairman, Bernard Kwame Mussey, Secretary, and Kofi Abrefa, Organiser.

The rest are Alpha Adams, Deputy Secretary, Abdallah Baba Ibrahim, Financial Secretary, and Rejoice Segbe, Deputy Organiser.

The congress was held on the theme, “Taking the Polytechnic to the Next Level: the role of the Polytechnic Workers Association, Ghana (POWAG)”.