GHANA

Senior staff on strike again over ‘unfair’ labour practice

Ghanaian public universities have ground to a halt after members of the Senior Staff Association of Universities of Ghana (SSA-UoG) embarked on a nationwide strike on 18 May 2021.

The group comprises non-teaching senior staff in public universities and is putting pressure on the government to improve their conditions of service, according to the chairman of the association, Zakaria Mohammed, 233times.net reported.

“In furtherance to our letter dated 7 May 2021, served on the executive secretary of the National Labour Commission (NLC), declaring our intention to embark on an industrial action, I wish on behalf of the national executive council to announce the complete withdrawal of services by all members of the Senior Staff Association-Universities of Ghana with immediate effect,” Mohammed said.

According to the news report, Mohammed said that, since March 2018, the SSA-UoG has continuously drawn the government’s attention through relevant agencies to the grievances of members of the association, but this has not yielded any result.

In January 2021, the association took similar strike action after they made their intentions known to the NLC. However, members of the SSA-UoG were forced to bring their action to an end after the commission secured an interlocutory injunction in the Accra High Court.

The organisation accuses the government of discrimination by being ‘selective’ in awarding premium and non-basic allowances, among other grievances.