Universities’ Senior Staff strikes on August 2 over poor conditions of service

The Senior Staff Association of Universities of Ghana (SSA-UoG) has directed its members to embark on industrial strike from August 2, 2021, following government’s failure to address the concerns raised over their conditions of service.

In a statement dated July 30, 2021 and signed by the National Chairman of the association, Zakaria Mohammed, it said the government failed to “respect and fulfil the agreements between both parties (the association and government) at different intervals.”

Members of the SSA-UoG have been demanding the award of market premiums and non-basic allowances, as well as the finalization of negotiations of their conditions of service.

The association also accused the government of “contemptuous and total disregard to the National Labour Commission’s (NLC) directives on January 28, 2021, upon hearing from both parties to resolve all our concerns within a three-month stipulated period, which also regrettably elapsed on March 31, 2021, repugnantly.”

The union stressed that “all members of the Senior Staff Associations across all the 16 Public Universities in Ghana (SSA-UOG and Federation of Universities Senior Staff of Ghana - FUSSAG) are required to lay down their tools until further notice.”

You will recall on May 18, the association declared an indefinite strike over the failure of the government to pay their members Tier 2 pension contributions.

The association suspended its most recent strike on June 11 and expected positive signals from the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC).

It had met with the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission on Monday.

The association was hoping to have concluded negotiations on conditions of service by July 19, 2021 which however proved futile.

“The 9th June, 2021 agreement between SSA-UoG and the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), supervised and witnessed by the Vice-Chancellors and Ghana Tertiary Education Council (GTEC), to use the period from 30th June to 19th July, 2021 within which to conclude all the outstanding negotiations, unfortunately, painfully and frustratingly turned out to be a hoax upon its expiration.”