Three unions in public universities threaten to withdraw services from Oct. 15

Three labour unions in the country’s public universities have threatened to withdraw their services after Sunday, October 15 if the government fails to address their grievances.

The Ghana Association of University Administrators (GAUA), Tertiary Education Workers Union of Ghana (TEWU-GH), and the Senior Staff Association-Universities of Ghana (SSA-UoG) say they will lay down their tools if their car and off-campus allowances are not paid.

This was made known at a joint press conference in Accra.

“The reason for this press conference is the disregard of a signed agreement between Unions and the Government by the government through its agencies including the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, Fair Wages and Salaries Commission and Ghana Tertiary Education Commission in refusing to respect the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between labour unions and the Government on the 8th December 2022.”

They claim the government has failed to completely meet its part of the MoU.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, it would interest you to know that the labour unions graciously agreed to the Government’s requested moratorium of nine months, that is November 2022 to July 2023, before the payment of the new rate with its arrears.

“Yet, unfortunately, the Government through GTEC and MoF have now decided to only pay part of the arrears and has resorted to the old rates this past month.

“A situation that has resulted in rising tensions and profound distrust among members across all the Public University campuses.”

They are, therefore, giving the government up to Sunday, October 15 “or we withdraw all our
services”.