High court orders striking lecturers back to class

Students of Ghana’s public universities can heave a temporary sigh of relief because the nearly five-week strike by the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) has been put on hold by the Accra High Court, writes Emmanuel Ebo Hawkson for Graphic Online.

The Labour Division of the Accra High Court on Tuesday 15 February put an injunction on the strike after it upheld an interlocutory application by the National Labour Commission (NLC). According to the decision of the court, presided over by Justice Frank Aboadwe Rockson, UTAG is to suspend its strike immediately and go back to the lecture halls. In addition, the lecturers cannot embark on any strike until the final determination of an application filed at the court by the NLC.

The NLC filed the application for an order of the High Court to enforce its (NLC) directive for UTAG to call off its strike and return to the negotiation table with the government. Delivering the ruling, Justice Rockson said the court, in its wisdom, had, on two occasions, advised the parties to settle the dispute out of court.
Full report on the Graphic Online site