Government appeals to UTAG to call off strike

Government has appealed to the University Teachers’ Association of Ghana (UTAG) to return to the lecture halls as their allowances would be paid.

A statement, copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Monday, said government had agreed to pay the allowances according to the National Labour Commission’s (NLC) directives.

It  said University teachers had been fully paid their monthly salaries and other allowances for every month that they had worked in 2013.

The statement said: “In 2012, they were paid all their salaries and other benefits except the market premium, which is an allowance that was in dispute and was a subject matter before the NLC. The Commission decided that government was liable to pay the allowance.”

It noted that the NLC had agreed with the proposal of government and directed that the arrears of the allowances for 2012 should be paid in three equal installments in May, July and September.

The statement said the action of the UTAG was seeking to pressurise government to violate the directives of the NLC and compel it to make a lump sum payment.

“It is regrettable that university teachers are not teaching presently even though their full salaries and allowances, as enhanced by the implementation of the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS), is being paid them even for the days they stay away from work,” the statement said.

Source: GNA