The Senior Staff Association of Universities of Ghana, says its ongoing industrial action would be intensified through the deployment of a taskforce to ensure full compliance by members.

This comes after the Association extended the strike to include other departments under its umbrella that were exempted from the initial stages of the action.

Speaking to Citi News, the National President of the Association, Zakaria Mohammed, said they will not return to work until the government addresses their concerns, which include demands for improved conditions of service and the payment of outstanding Tier-2 pension contributions.

He further mentioned that a task force has been formed to ensure that their members comply with the strike.

“On Tuesday, the Minister for Employment and Labour Relations invited us and said that because we haven’t called off the strike, we have acted in bad faith and that the negotiation process has been truncated. So in effect, what that means is that there is no headway being made. So it was on the basis of that we extended the strike to other essential services.”

“The taskforce on the various campuses, I have had discussions with them to go round and ensure that our members do not come to work. We will not close down the schools, but we are workers, and we are saying that we have a problem with the government, and we want the government to solve the issues. If government resolves the issues, we will call off our strike, otherwise, we stay home.”

About the strike
The Association declared an indefinite strike over the failure of the government to pay their Tier 2 pension.

Among other things, they are asking for the award of market premium and non-basic allowance as well as the finalization of negotiations of their conditions of service.

Address concerns of Universities’ Senior Staff Association
On the same matter, the Chairman of the Governing Council of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW), Professor Obeng Mireku, has asked the government and the Ministry of Finance to address the demands of the Senior Staff Association.

Speaking to Citi News at the 25th Congregation of the school, Professor Mireku expressed concern that the academic calendar could be disrupted if the government fails to intervene.

“We are appealing to the government and the Ministry of Finance to as a matter of urgency address the industrial action by the Senior Staff Association of Universities of Ghana, and the looming industrial action by the Ghana Association of University Administrators. The Senior Staff Association of Universities of Ghana is currently on strike, and the Ghana Association of University Administrators has also indicated its intention to do the same if the Finance Minister goes ahead to stop the payment of certain allowances to some of its members.”

“We are thus calling on the Minister of Finance to continue to engage the unions on outstanding issues. I am calling on the Vice-Chancellors of Ghana to intervene to avert any disruptions to the academic calendar of public universities.”