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The Bolgatanga Technical University branch of the Technical University Teachers’ Association of Ghana (TUTAG) and the Technical University Senior Administrators’ Association of Ghana (TUSAAG) have declared an indefinite strike.
They two associations unanimously alleged that the Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Samuel Erasmus Alnaa, was seeking to vary portions of the benefits of their remembers on retirement.
These purported variations, they said, were not in accordance with what was approved by the Ministry of Finance and the Technical Universities’ Act of 2016, Act 922, as amended, and their members were being disadvantaged by the misinterpretation of the Vice Chancellor.
In a joint press release, signed by Dr Oswald Atiga and Dr George Nangpaak Duut, Chairman and Secretary of TUTAG, respectively, and Mr. Richard Abugre Atia and Ms. Matilda Azeko, Chairman and Organising Secretary of TUSAAG respectively, the associations said they had withdrawn their services effective August 25, 2023, until their demands were met.
“We strongly reject our Vice Chancellor’s absurd interpretation of our Conditions of Service where he seeks to departmentalise the payment of our retirement benefits for our retirees by paying only three months’ salary for the number of years served under the Polytechnic and then one month salary for every year served effective after 2031.”
“We insist that any TUTAG or TUSAAG member who served for continuous 10 years under the erstwhile Polytechnic system automatically qualifies as an accrued right to enjoy this retirement benefit as pertains in other technical universities (TUs) across the country,” it said.
Section 42 (6) of the Technical Universities Act (2016), Act 922 as amended, which states that: “A person in the employment of a polytechnic in existence immediately before the coming into force of this Act, shall be deemed to have been duly employed by the respective technical university established under this Act on the terms and conditions attached to the post held by that person before the coming into force of this Act”.
“If the framers of the Technical Universities Amendments Act, Act 974(2018) intended to go by our VC’s interpretation, then they should have paid off every staff under the Polytechnic dispensation before the transition. Staff of the Technical Universities should then have been employed as new staff in the TUs,” the statement said.
Comparing the decision of the Vice Chancellor to that of the practice in other technical universities, the statement said it was not done in other universities and noted that the associations would resist to be treated differently.
“Reference to our (TUTAG & TUSAAG) July 13 and 19 respective letters to the NLC, We of the Bolgatanga branches of TUTAG and TUSAAG have hereby withdrawn all our services effective 1.00 pm today, the 25th of August, 2023 until all our demands are met,” it added.
The statement further demanded the immediate payment of the internal component of the Online Teaching Support Allowance (OTSA) and its accrued arrears for teaching staff who had not been paid since January 2022.
The Vice Chancellor told the Ghana News Agency that there was ambiguity interpreting the directive from the Ministry of Finance and the two associations and management had agreed and referred the matter to the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission for interpretation, which was still pending.
“I am surprised they have declared a strike because we are supposed to get feedback from the GTEC by end of August, because we want to avoid a situation where we will pay out money and people will have to refund or I will have to pay because the two associations know this but I will meet with them on Tuesday to find a solution,” he said.
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