CKT-UTAS staff resumes suspended strike

Worker Unions at the Clement Kubindiwo Tedam - University of Technology and Applied Sciences (CKT-UTAS) in Navrongo in the Upper East Region have resumed their suspended industrial strike action.

The Unions resumed the industrial strike action following what it described as failure by the Controller and Accountant General Department (CAGD), the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) and CKT-UTAS Management to adhere to the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) it signed with the Unions after they embarked on a strike action on August 2, 2021.

The Unions, namely the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), the Ghana Association of University Administrators (GAUA), the Teachers Educational Workers Union (TEWU) and the Senior Staff Association-Universities of Ghana (SSA-UoG), suspended their strike action on August 18, 2021 after the MoU was signed between them and Government on August 17, 2021.

At a news conference in Navrongo to declare the strike action, the CKT-UTAS President of UTAG, Dr Jonas Bugase, said it was agreed that the Controller and Accountant General's Department (CAGD) would adhere to all conditions stated in the agreement.

He said the agreement was between the Public University Workers Unions in Ghana and the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) under the order of the National Labour Commission (NLC) before any steps to migrate workers to the CAGD - IPPD2 system.

He said it was agreed that there would be installation of IPPD2 application software on the Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD-UBIDS) and the CKT-UTAS campuses.

He said the MoU was also intended to train personnel of the Finance Directorates of both the CKT-UTAS and the SDD-UBIDS campuses, while the CAGD would undertake a three-month test run with existing payroll data, parallel to the present payroll systems of the individual campuses so as to rectify all discrepancies.

According to Dr Bugase, it was also agreed that the status quo on all campuses would remain as directed by the NLC until the key conditions were met, saying “It is important to state that four months down the lane, none of these has happened on the CKT-UTAS and SDD-UBIDS campuses.”

The CKT-UTAS UTAG President said it was further agreed that staff of the CKT-UTAS and SDD-UBIDS would continue to receive their salary through the University for Development Studies (UDS) until the conditions precedent were met.

“This salary payment arrangement has since been problematic. UDS often pay their staff at the end of each month, while the workers of CKT-UTAS and SDD-UBIDS are paid virtually three weeks into the following month,” Dr Bugase disclosed.

He said the protracted delay in paying salaries had brought excruciating hardship on staff and their families, and generated simmering tensions in the University.

“We are notifying the NLC and the Government that we have resolved to reactivate our suspended strike action. We entreat members to comply fully until further notice,” he said.

GNA