Soften Your Stances and Pay UTAG the 62% to return to Lectures- Kumbugu MP urges Govt
The Member of Parliament for Kimbugu, Hon Dr Hamza Adam has called on the government to heed to the demands of the University Teachers Union of Ghana (UTAG) and pay them the 62 percent basic salary so they return to the Lectures.
According to him, while the negotiation continues on other incentives demands it was proper the government soften it’s stance and pay the UTAG members the 62 per cent.
Dr Adam who is the Deputy Ranking of Environment and Science Committee of Parliament, made the call in a statement he delivered on the floor of parliament on Thursday, February 17,2022.
” Mr Speaker, the Government must do all it can to pay the Lecturers the 62% of their current basic salary in the interim, which will at least restore them to the 114% that they are demanding.”
The Kumbugu lawmaker also called on the government to review the Single Spine Salary (SSS) which has been implemented to help mitigate some of these strikes after it’s implementation over 10 years ago.
” The Government should in the medium term consider a holistic review of public sector salaries, especially the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS), which has been operating for more than 10 years now,” he said.
He added that, “the current and future governments must ensure that Labour Market Surveys are conducted every 5 years, Market Premiums for critical skills in the public sector determined and guidelines developed for implementation. Government needs to demonstrate commitment to this arrangement in order to bring a lasting solution to UTAG’s labour and salary concerns as government should as recommended in the 2013 government White Paper,
Dr Adam however called on government to take urgent steps to end the ongoing UTAG strike action in order not to further disrupt the academic calender, which has already been badly affected by Covid-19.
Below is the Full Statement
UNPACKING THE FACTS OF UTAG’S 2022 STRIKE ACTION: A WAY FORWAD
DR. HAMZA ADAM, MP FOR KUMBUNGU
Mr. Speaker, the University Teachers’ Association of Ghana (UTAG) on January 10, 2022 declared an indefinite strike action to demand for better Conditions of Service. The current strike is just one of the series of strikes UTAG has embarked on in recent times to seek for improved Conditions of Service.
Mr. Speaker, it is reported that UTAG entered into negotiations with government to resolve salary anomalies as far back in 2019, when UTAG submitted a Conditions of Service document containing a number of proposals to the government for consideration. According to UTAG, government exhibited lack of commitment to the negotiations on the proposals made thereby compelling the Association to declare an indefinite strike action in August, 2021.
Mr. Speaker, the strike action was later suspended upon several meetings and promises by the government to resolving the issues. UTAG and the government after determining the rules of engagement went into a one month negotiations. The items listed for the negotiations included the Market Premium. According to UTAG, the Basic Salary was not negotiated because government indicated it was only the Standing Joint Tripartite Committee (JTC) that could negotiate basic salaries for the public sector workers, which a 7% increase was already determined by the said committee.
Mr. Speaker, according to UTAG, government again indicated that the Labour Market Survey was to be completed by October 2021 for the determination of Market Premium for implementation in January 2022. Therefore, UTAG agreed with the hope that the Market Premium was to be determined and implemented by the said date. However, UTAG realised that the Labour Market Survey, which is supposed to be a panacea delayed and for that reason determination and implementation of the Market Premium in January 2022 was not feasible. To this end, UTAG in December 2021 informed government to restore the Interim Market Premium of 114% of current basic salary. This is based on the argument that the Interim Market Premium, which is 114% of the 2012 Basic Salary has deteriorated over the years to only 52% of current Basic Salary. In other words, UTAG is only asking government to pay the difference of 62% of current Basic Salary to make up for the 114%. According UTAG, failure of government to adhere to their appeal, compelled them to embark on the current strike action.
Mr. Speaker, UTAG strike is of great concern to many due to its enormous negative effects on students, parents, and other stakeholders. Some negative repercussions from the UTAG strike include: 1. It has brought academic activities to a halt over the last four (4) weeks and now in the fifth week, which is likely to affect quality of teaching and learning. 2. There is wastage of resources and time since students have already reported to schools and paid for accommodation and facility user fees, which are time bound. 3. It also likely lead to psychological trauma among some students, especially fresh ones, since university environment may look strange to them. 4. It may also plunge some students into immoral activities such as cybercrimes, sexual immorality, excessive drinking of alcohol; among others. Indeed, these effects of strike actions by university academics are well documented in the literature. For example, Egwu (2018) summarises the effects of university strike actions as: 1. It affects students’ performance in examinations and facilitates examination malpractices 2. It destabilizes the school programme and its operations, which lead to production of half-baked university graduates 3. It decreases research and innovation in tertiary institutions and also leads to low staff outputs.
Mr. Speaker, following the negative effects the current strike action is having on the citizenry, it is necessary government takes the following steps to urgently end the UTAG strike, and to allow restoration of academic work:
- Government must do all it can to pay the Lecturers the 62% of their current basic salary in the interim, which will at least restore them to the 114% that they are demanding. This will surely bring our Lecturers back to the Lecture Theatres for academic work to resume.
- After payment of the 62% as a stopgap measure, it is important for government to expedite action on the determination of Market Premium for deserving critical skills in the public sector as identified in the 2019 Labour Market Survey and development of guidelines for implementation of the Market Premium.
- Government must work with UTAG to develop a roadmap suitable to both parties for the restoration of the entry level salaries of Lecturers, which was the Ghana Cedi equivalent of US$2,084 per month in 2012, which has since deteriorated to less than the Ghana Cedi equivalent of US$1,000.00 per month.
- As recommended in the 2013 White Paper, the current and future governments must ensure that Labour Market Surveys are conducted every 5 years, Market Premiums for critical skills in the public sector determined and guidelines developed for implementation. Government needs to demonstrate commitment to this arrangement in order to bring a lasting solution to UTAG’s labour and salary concerns.
- Government should in the medium term consider a holistic review of public sector salaries, especially the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS), which has been operating for more than 10 years now.
In conclusion Mr. Speaker, I am calling on government to take urgent steps to end the ongoing UTAG strike action in order not to further disrupt the academic calender, which has already been badly affected by Covid-19.
Source: expressnewsghana.com
About Author
