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Professor Ransford Yaw Gyampo, Secretary-Elect of the Association of University Teachers of Ghana (UTAG), University of Ghana Chapter, congratulated Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and Minister of Education Dr Osei Yaw Adutwum for the high level maturity they have shown in ensuring that UTAG members suspend their strike.
UTAG has been on strike for about weeks to demand the implementation of a 2012 Single Spine package that grants entry-level speakers a salary of $ 2,084, among other things.
Several weeks of strike action and refusal to cancel, which ended in court, the teachers finally agreed to return to the negotiating table by signing a memorandum of understanding with the government to suspend the strike.
In order to assert UTAG’s position and provide insight into what happened behind the scenes, Professor Gyampo in a social media post praised the Vice President and Minister of Education for the level of maturity they have shown to calm the nerves.
He said that “Fortunately, balanced leaders like the Vice President and Minister of Education were human enough to empathize with our poor conditions of service and have shown a palpable commitment to bringing an end to it. at an impasse ”.
Below his post:
1. We trade in perpetuity with no end in sight. We were talking about our poor conditions of service with the authorities, and no one was giving us the attention we needed. Some state officials who were mandated to engage us in negotiations treated us with disrespect. They scheduled meetings and never showed up. They organized meetings and were never on time. They scheduled meetings and asked people who had neither the mandate nor the power to engage the government, to negotiate with us. We have suffered a blatant disrespect from the very people we have trained and trained, teaching, for almost ten years.
2. The National Labor Commission, obviously a very moribund and incompetent body, simply had no idea what to do to meet our challenges as an independent arbitrator. They could not call successive governments to order for not respecting their own agreements with us. But they could cheaply fathom the idea of using the courts to intimidate those who teach the laws interpreted by the courts.
3. Well, we are happy to have ignored, ignored and refused to be intimidated by their attempt to intimidate us. We also went to court to challenge their interlocutory injunction and the case was about to be heard. We were not fined because the fines imposed by the courts relate to guilt and criminality. Some processes had not been fully filed by the time our case to quash the NLC’s flawed interlocutory injunction was about to be heard. Typical of a bias arbitrator, the NLC raised issues with our filing processes and asked the judge to award a cost of 10,000 cedis against us for wasting time. The judge, however, awarded a cost of 3000 cedis, which we could easily afford, despite our terms of service.
4. Our substantive case challenging the interlocutory injunction of the NLC was to be heard on Thursday, August 19, 2021. We would appeal any unfavorable decision to the Supreme Court and even there, request a review of their decision, if it had. been unfavorable. But at the same time we were unhappy with the potential closure of public universities and the accompanying disruption of our academic calendars. Fortunately, balanced leaders like the Vice President and Minister of Education have shown enough humanity to empathize with our poor terms of service and have shown a palpable commitment to putting a end to the dead end.
5. They met with us and this resulted in the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding, which among other things states that the NLC must end its lawsuit against us, while we take steps to SUSPEND (not to cancel) our industrial action, get back to the negotiating table and within a month we will agree on something for ourselves. Our industrial action was fruitful in that it gave us the necessary attention and forced the authorities to a negotiation deadline of one month, in which all questions should be dealt with.
6. It must be reiterated that UTAG has not called off its strike, as no demand has yet been met. The strike, in accordance with the memorandum of understanding, was only suspended pending the end of the one-month negotiation period. The dividing line between “a strike called off” and “a suspended strike” needs to be clearly articulated and caution should be exercised about more deadly industrial action, which garners massive support from all unions in Ghana and makes the country ungovernable, would be proposed, and organized to bring equity and social balance, in case the university professors felt cheated, cheated or lying, after the one-month negotiation period. We would closely monitor the negotiations. We will not fight the government. and we will not team up with the opposition. But we would make sure that UTAG was no longer taken for granted from now on.
7. Special congratulations are to be addressed to His Excellency the President of Ghana, who told me, was very upset with the way we were being treated; the vice president for his behind-the-scenes intervention efforts; the Minister of Education, who must henceforth be designated as the LEADING MASTER for his civility and his calming language; the Deputy Minister of Employment; and the entire student body for their unwavering support for us. The only state institution that has malfunctioned is the NLC. His incompetence would remain a monumental embarrassment for governments if efforts are not made to change his leadership. Not all state posts should be filled by party apparatchiks, and if for some reason a party loyalist needs to be appointed, care should be taken to ensure that such a person can actually lead in times of crisis. . The current NLC has exceeded its usefulness as an independent arbiter in the face of the labor crisis, and the sooner something is done about the Commission the better for all of us.
8. UTAG will take steps to SUSPEND (not cancel) its strike for the time being, as a sign of empathy for our students and respect for all agreements reached, leading to the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding. The actual cancellation of our strike depends on the outcome of the month-long negotiation period, and we all pray that it is good and seen as one of President Akufo Addo’s great legacies.
9. Let me advise the government to start rethinking the discrimination imposed by Article 71 of the 1992 Constitution which grants juicy conditions of service to a few people, with a relatively low level of education, and ignores all of them. other civil servants who receive a pittance each month, and whose deaths are precipitated each year, for the poor pension they receive at retirement. For politicians and all other Section 71 office holders would no longer be at peace, as long as they continue to enjoy high salaries while the rest of the population wallows in poverty. They can’t keep telling us to tighten our belts, while they eat good food to make their bellies protrude and loosen their belts. If there is no money, we must all suffer. If there is money, it must be fairly distributed. It is an essential means of consolidating our peace and stability for development.
Yaw Gympo
A31, Prabiw
PAV Ansah Street
Salt pond
&
Suro Nipa House
Kasease
Larteh-Akuapim
— DGN online
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