The Ministry of Education has hailed the suspension of the strike by the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) saying the move is welcoming.

The National Executive Committee of UTAG after a meeting on Monday suspended the seven-week-old strike for further engagement with the government on the grievances of its members.

The resolution will, however, be put before members of the Association, who have five days within which to vote to reject or accept the decision.

Speaking on the matter, the Public Relations Officer of the Education Ministry, Kwasi Kwarteng said the government remains committed to addressing the issues.

“Let me take the opportunity to once again commend the lecturers for the demonstration of goodwill in suspending the strike. As for the government side, particularly the Ministry of Education, we remain committed to engaging the leadership of UTAG as per the road map that has been developed by the parties at resolving the impasse amicably. So, it’s a step in the right direction, and we believe that the parties will resolve whatever outstanding issues as soon as possible.”

UTAG has been on strike since January 10 to force the government to restore the conditions of service agreed in 2012.

The Secretary of the University of Ghana Chapter of UTAG, Prof. Ransford Gyampo in a Facebook post told UTAG members that at a National Executive Committee meeting held on Monday evening “we decided to suspend our industrial action and to allow negotiations to commence and be concluded in two weeks.”

An injunction had been placed on the strike after an appeal by the National Labour Commission (NLC).

The court had on two occasions ordered both parties to adopt an out-of-court settlement.

The 2012 conditions of service pegged the Basic plus Market Premium of a lecturer at $2,084.42.

UTAG had complained that the current arrangement has reduced its members’ basic premiums to $997.8