TUTAG strike hits hard at KTU, students beg for government intervention

The strike action by Technical University Tutors Association of Ghana (TUTAG) and Technical University Senior Administrators Association of Ghana (TUSAAG) has started biting hard at Kumasi Technical University.

Students resumed on Monday, January 6 after a brief Christmas break expecting to start their end-of-semester exams on Wednesday but that is not going to happen due to the industrial action by TUTAG and TUSAAG.

A visit to the campus on Thursday shows some of the students learning on their own whilst others are idling about.

The various lecture halls have been placed under lock and key.

Students of the University are, therefore, appealing to the government to give a listening ear to their striking tutors and administrators for academic work to resume.

The stranded students fear the strike would disrupt their academic calendar.

“This strike action is affecting us badly,” a first year student, Esther Osei Bonsu, noted.

“Our academic activity has come to a halt and we do not know exactly when our tutors are resuming. It’s just frustrating having prepared for the exams just to be told lecturers are on strike. We plead with government to dialogue with lecturers and bring them back to the classroom.”

A final year student, George Mensah, described the strike action as disturbing.

“We are expected to start exams this week and end in two weeks’ time but the strike action won’t make it possible. We fear our date of completion will be dragged. We are pleading with government to give ears to our lecturers to call off the strike,” he pleaded.

The industrial action by both TUTAG and TUSAAG is to protest the non-payment of allowances due them following the conversion of polytechnics to technical universities.

According to them, 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 for December 2019, January 2020 and February 2020.

But the Commission has sent an urgent notice to leadership of the Technical University Senior Administrators Association of Ghana (TUSAAG) over the recently declared strike action.

The notice orders the leadership of TUSAAG to appear before the Commission on Friday, January 10.