Worker unions at Dombo University threaten strike over payroll migration on March 11

Worker unions at the Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD-UBIDS) have threatened to embark on a strike on March 11, 2021, over moves to migrate them onto the Controller and Accountant General’s Department payroll.

The unions say their posturing is in response to a letter from the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) dated February 17, 2021, on the issue.

The unions involved are the Ghana Association of University Administrators (GAUA), the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), Senior Staff Association-Universities of Ghana (SSA-UoG) and the Tertiary and Education Workers Union (TEWU).

“We find it discriminatory and unacceptable that these three public universities have been isolated and targeted among the public universities for migration to CAGD’s payroll at a time that there is an ongoing discussion on the migration of public universities to CAGD’s payroll,” they said in a statement.

The unions expect the possible migration to lead to a downgrade in salaries, allowances and other conditions of service.

“We have served GTEC a letter expressing our discontentment and have demanded of GTEC to withdraw the said letter with immediate effect and communicate to us by Thursday, March 11, 2021 If we do not receive a response from GTEC by the said date, our members have resolved to embark on a strike action by 18th March 2021,” the statement said.

The unions have also urged President Akufo-Addo to intervene in the matter.

In a separate statement, they asked the President to “stop GTEC/CAGD from migrating SDD-UBIDS staff, and staff of CKT-UTAS and UESD to CAGD’s Payroll until all negotiations are concluded between the national unions (UTAG, GAUA, SSA-UoG and TEWU) and the MoE, MoF, CAGD and NLC.”

The Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies was previously the Wa Campus of UDS before being granted autonomy.

---citinewsroom