Polytechnic Teachers in Talks Over salary

Negotiations between government and the Polytechnic Teachers Association of Ghana (POTAG) over the industrial action embarked upon by the latter are expected to start today. The Polytechnic teachers have embarked on a long strike action to press home their point for inclusion in the 20% salary increase announced by government last year.

The National Executive Committee of the Ghana National Union of Polytechnic Students (GNUPS) is bracing up for a mass demonstration if by next Monday the government fails to find a solution to the impasse, which is in its fifth week.

Some of the students have expressed solidarity with their lecturers who they say are making a legitimate demand for their arrears. They added that negotiations per se do not yield positive dividends. Governments they went on use negotiations to buy time and create an impression of doing something about a situation when they are actually doing nothing. In an interview Mr. Henry Jackson Nsiah National Secretary GNUPS said the fact that lecturers agitated for salary increase last year was no justification to exclude them from the 20% upward adjustment.