‘We have called off our strike’ – UTAG national president

The University Teachers Association of Ghana says it has suspended the 17-day old strike after the National Labour Commission withdrew a legal suit against it.

According to the national President of the Association, Professor Charles Marfo, who spoke to JoyNews, the leadership of UTAG are going to inform their members of the decision they have taken to call off the strike. He expressed hope that members will ratify their decision.

UTAG leadership, on Wednesday, August 18, signed a memorandum of agreement with government to call off the strike and continue negotiation, but on condition that all legal suits initiated by government against them are withdrawn.

NLC has since withdrawn the suit, and the Labour Division of the Accra High Court has struck out the case.

“If you look at the document we signed with government, there were processes to withdraw all cases against UTAG, and UTAG has also taken steps to withdraw the strike.

“It is necessary that the people whose mandate we used are approached; we need to respectfully inform them of the document we have signed; I believe they will sanction that”, Professor Charles Marfo noted.

Professor Charles Marfo also explained that the various public Universities will now have to decide on suspended examinations.

The University of Ghana and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) suspended their end of semester exams over the strike.

“Normally, this has to be the decision of management. However, I know it’s because of our strike that they suspended exams, so obviously now that we have suspended it, they will put plans in place for it to happen”, Professor Marfo explained.

Meanwhile, some students have been calling on University management to give them more time to prepare for the exams after 2 weeks of the UTAG strike.

National President of UTAG Professor Charles Marfo says the position of the students is understandable.

“I can understand them, and I know management will take their plea into consideration.”

UTAG has been on strike since Monday 2nd August and has been demanding a little over 2,000 Dollars as entry-level salary for lecturers. According to them, this was an agreement they reached with government in 2012 as part of the Single Spine Salary Structure.