General News of Monday, 16 August 2021
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
2021-08-16
The NLC wants UTAG members to return to the classrooms as they negotiate talks
• The NLC and UTAG will be in court today
• The NLC says UTAG can’t be on strike when negotiations are ongoing
• UTAG is on strike and has called on government to restore their 2012 Single Spine package
A Labour Court in Accra will hear a contempt case brought to it, against the leadership of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), today, August 16.
The case from the National Labour Commission is as a result of an interlocutory injunction it secured from the court last Friday, August 6, compelling UTAG to back down on its strike which started on Monday, August 2, 2021, citinewsroom.com has reported.
That directive is one that UTAG has however refused to comply with even though the NLC has insisted that it is not legal for UTAG to still be on strike while they negotiate.
But UTAG has insisted that at the moment, there is no active negotiation between the stakeholders, and as such, that directive is not tenable.
“[Our] legal team also filed [an application]. NLC urged the court to set aside the injunction. We think that the injunction was not properly served and so it is now a matter for the court to determine. The NLC says that we cannot be negotiating while on strike, but our position is that given what has transpired between us and government, there is no negotiation ongoing unless they want to now call us to begin negotiation,” the president of UTAG said.
UTAG wants the government to restore the conditions of service agreed upon in 2012, arguing that, that arrangement was a far better one compared to what they currently enjoy.
The report added that in the 2012 Single Spine package, entry-level lecturers were on a salary of $2,084 whereas this current one gives the same group of persons a salary of only $900.
