NLC to meet Labour Minister, FWSC, others on Monday over TUTAG strike

The National Labour Commission (NLC) has scheduled a meeting with relevant stakeholders in the employment and education sectors on Monday, October 28, 2019, to discuss the industrial action taken by technical university teachers.

Some officials who will be part of the meeting are the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Chief Executive of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, the Minister of Education, the Minister of State for Tertiary Education and the National President of the Technical University Teachers Association.

“The parties are hereby informed that the meeting is rescheduled to Monday, 28th October 2019 at 11:00 a.m. Please note that this letter supersedes the earlier one. The invitation is in accordance with Section 139 of the Labour Act 2003, Act 651,” the letter to the aforementioned stakeholders stated.

The letter dated October 10, 2019, is signed by Dr. Mrs. Bernice A. Welbeck, Director, Admin and HR at the National Labour Commission.

Members of the Technical University Teachers Association of Ghana (TUTAG) have been on strike since October 7, 2019 after emoluments due them were not released despite a directive from the Ministry of Finance to the Controller and Accountant General’s Department.

Technical Universities Administrators Association of Ghana (TUAAG), also joined demanding full benefits of migration onto the public universities’ salary structure.

Deadlock after an earlier meeting

An earlier meeting between Government and representatives of TUTAG ended inconclusively.

The three-week continuous industrial action by TUTAG and the recent indefinite strike also declared by the administrators is having dire consequences on technical education in the country at the moment.

The strike by the two unions is over the government’s failure to migrate them onto the public universities’ salary structure.

Students in some of the technical universities have also been holding various protests to impress upon the government to meet their demands and ensure that they return to class to enable academic work resume.

Students in some of the technical universities have also been holding various protests to impress upon the government to meet the lecturer’s demands and ensure that they return to class to enable academic work resume.

Various calls have been made on the government to resolve the impasse and this includes a call by the Ranking Member on the Education Committee of Parliament, Peter Nortsu-Kotoe who wants the government to as a matter of urgency address the various issues warning that if the situation is not tackled immediately, it could distort the academic calendar.

“For three weeks now, they have been out of the lecture halls and I don’t think it is the best for Technical University Education in this country.  That means the semester is already disorganized and they have to do extra work when this is finally settled. The government should meet its own obligations and make sure it settles the lecturers and administrators so that they can go back to work. This should be done immediately”, he said.

Credit: Citinewsroom.com