Don't Blame Us For TUTAG’s Delayed Allowances – NCTE

The National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) says it should not be blamed for the delays in the payment of allowances owed striking teachers of Technical Universities (TUTAG) across the country.

The NCTE explains that the teachers are yet to submit data that will enable the Council to process the payment.

Members of the Technical University Teachers Association of Ghana (TUTAG) have accused government of using NCTE as a channel to buy time and scare the association from further demanding what is due its members.

But the Executive Secretary of the NCTE, Professor Mohammed Salifu, said they have made efforts to reach out to the striking teachers but the teachers have not made themselves available to address the challenge.

“We have worked on the data they’ve given us, and office holders have been paid. What is outstanding is the allowances to the individuals but they haven’t given us the data to work on so that the individuals can be paid. On Monday we had a meeting to which they were invited but unfortunately at the last minute they called in to say that they had another pre-scheduled meeting,” he said.

The Technical University Teachers Association of Ghana (TUTAG) declared an indefinite strike effective January 6, 2020, the second in less than six months.

This is in protest of the non-payment of allowances due its members following the conversion of polytechnics to technical universities.

According to the Association, the government has “refused to fully comply” with the ruling by the National Labour Commission (NLC) to ensure that members of the association started receiving allowances due them from December 2019, January 2020 and February 2020.

Prior to this strike action, on Friday, December 27, 2019, the leadership of TUTAG declared an immediate resumption of its suspended strike after calling off their strike in October 2019.

The strike has affected teaching and learning at the various technical universities with some students lamenting about the effect. NLC must sue gov't for flouting directives on TUTAG allowances

A former Executive Secretary of the National Labour Commission (NLC), Charles Bawa Dua has urged the Commission to sue the government over the supposed disregard of its directives.

Speaking to Citi News, Charles Bawa Dua said, for the commission to be seen as a fair arbiter, it should ensure the full enforcement of its ruling.

—Citinewsroom