Technical University lecturers to strike over salaries

Lecturers of the Technical Universities (TUs) in the country are planning a strike over government’s delay in migrating them onto the public universities salary structure.

For two years, the staff of the six technical universities have been working without the due and commensurate salaries, something the lecturers have described as “distasteful and unwarranted”.

The Technical Universities Teachers Association (TUTAG) says the government’s failure to migrate them is causing tension among their members and become disincentive to both teaching and non-teaching staff.

At a news conference Tuesday, TUTAG said they have suffered enough “unfairness and injustice” and will not stop at nothing in ensuring that they are placed on the appropriate salary structure.

“Despite our being labelling as universities…all workers of TUs do not enjoy the deserved remuneration and respect that goes with it,” Chairman of the Kumasi Technical University Chapter of TUTAG, Ing. Andrews Danquah, said.

The processes required for their migration, he said, have been completed yet the government has been dragging its feet in getting them onto the public universities salary structure.

According to TUTAG, government has finished the amendment of the Act that converted the six polytechnics into universities, and also done with audit of all senior members of TUTAG to the extent that some of them lost their positions in the process.

“As if that is not enough, even those the Ministry and the NCTE have cleared as qualified to occupy their positions have still not been migrated onto the public university salary structure.

He said the audit report a copy of which was issued to TUTAG in January, had a cover letter from the Education Minister directing the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission to take steps to migrate qualified staff of TUs onto the structure immediately.

However, he said that was yet to be done almost five months on.

“This we find callous on the part of government” he stated, and added “we see this foot-dragging as a sign of government who do not believe in the vision of establishing the TUs in the first place”.

Ing Danquah said TUTAG staff currently have no idea whatsoever on when they are likely to be migrated, saying they do not “know when…the exact time our members will be migrated and whether we will enjoy any back pay or not as a result of the delays that are completely the responsibility of the government”.

He said TUTAG was giving government up to the end of June to ensure staff of TUs are migrated onto the public universities salary structure or they will embark on strike to demand the right thing is done.

“We further wish to state clearly that due to the unnecessary delays, we hereby give the government up to the end of June 2019 to migrate all qualified staff of the TUs to their rightful skills on the public universities salaries structure, otherwise together with our national body, we shall advise ourselves within the ambit of the law of the land,” he warned.