Senior Staff of universities embark on indefinite strike

The leadership of the Senior Staff Associations of the Universities of Ghana (SSA-UoG) has announced the commenced an indefinite strike by members.

The industrial action which started on May 21, is to press home their demand for the roll out of the details of an agreement they have with government.

“What has led to this is the non-implementation of an agreement we have signed with the government since November 2024. It’s a collective bargaining agreement we signed with the previous government, and you know it was close to the election so we followed up, because of the election they could not implement it. So, the new government came we did a follow-up we were told the President was yet to appoint his minister so we should wait,” the National Chairman of the Association, Mr George Ansong said in an interview with Alfred Ocansey on May 21.

According to him, “We waited when the ministers were appointed, we wrote to the Minister of Education, later we were told by finance that they are factoring in our agreement because it contains some monetary elements so we should wait for them to factor it into the budget.

We agreed and we waited for the budget to be passed. After the budget was passed, we had a meeting with the Minister of Education, he assured us that he was going to follow up for it to be implemented as soon as possible, that never happened.”

Mr Ansong lamented that “When we did a follow-up to meet the Director in Charge of Tertiary said the date was not favorable, so he was going to invite us again, he never invited. I called him he then told me that he has our letters with him. In fact, the day we met the Minister he took a copy of our letter he minuted on it and gave it to them to work on it. He told us that yes, he has all the letters with him, but we should write again to remind him before we do the follow-up.”

Mr Ansong said they refused to comply with that directive, “that one we didn’t do because we don’t see why you have confirmed that you have the letters with you. The Minister has asked you to work on it and you tell us to write another letter to remind you, we didn’t mind.”

Mr Ansong further revealed that “at the Ministry of Finance, we were told, oh everything is fine. The letter has been drafted. It’s left with signing it. We waited the letter didn’t come, so we wrote to the National Labour Commission declaring our intention of going on strike. And yesterday was the deadline. Seven working days, so today we decided to go on strike.”

He said the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission has also not been helpful in this respect.

“Monday, the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission invited us. When we went, we were told that the new boss says he has just come and that was the first time he was hearing of our case. And so what government is saying is that, he the new boss will have to validate it before they give the go-ahead for it to be implemented,” he said.

Mr Ansong intimated that, they consider the back and forth as a delay tactic.

“I don’t see why a letter has been even drafted and is waiting for signing for you to also tell us that you are now going to validate it or endorse it before it is implemented. I believe that government is a continuum, and this letter has been with the Finance Ministry since November last year. So why is that somebody has just come and he will also have to endorse it or validate it before it is implemented and when we’re following up nobody told us this story. So, we saw that it was a delay tactic that they were playing with us. That is why today we have called the strike,” he explained.

“The immediate past CEO of Fair Wages has done all those things. We have gotten past where somebody will have to validate. So, when the previous boss was leaving, he didn’t leave any handing over notes and those there, apart from the boss who left everybody is there. Nobody briefed him?” He quizzed.

Meanwhile, Mr Ansong indicated that the Controller and Accountant General has been directed to start implementation. Until that is done, they will not call off the strike.

“The government has asked the Controller and Accountant General to see to the implementation and that is it. So, if today the letter comes fine, we’ll call our people to go back to work,” Mr Ansong said.

He noted that if their concern is not addressed, it will have dire consequences when the universities reopen.

“We’ll see, if all the university senior staff are on strike and school is reopening. We’ll see how the campuses will be. It’s going to affect all the areas, because students are coming. Those on campus the hall assistants will be on leave, so who is going to receive them? The ones who will be in the offices to do the registration will not be there, those who are going to pay their fees and other things nobody will be there to receive them, those in the labs nobody will go to the lab to teach their students. So, it will have a serious impact on the universities,” he warned.

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