National Chairman of the Senior Staff Association of Universities of Ghana, Mohammed Zakaria, has disclosed that its members at the University for Development Studies (UDS) in Tamale have complied with the directive to strike.

According to him, the Association’s taskforce is monitoring its members to ensure that they all comply with the strike action. This, he explained, will ensure they register their displeasure and also draw government’s attention to their predicaments.

Currently, offices from the three campuses of the university in the Northern Region are locked up with no sightings of staff.

Mr Zakaria further urged its members to have trust in the leadership as they continue the fight. To this end, any member caught flouting the directive will be sanctioned.

“The monitoring will continue until the strike is called off. We are going to continue monitoring; because we have some recalcitrant staff who have sworn an oath to be enemies of the Senior Staff Association of all Universities in Ghana. They are those we are hunting for and we have indicated on the day of declaration that such people are really enemies of the Senior Staff Association of Ghana; and we are hunting them. So, when we see them, we can prescribe some proper sanctions for them.

“The message I’m sending to them is that they should continue to have hope, confidence and trust in the leadership and that they should also help us.

“You can lose your membership. We can also decide to organize a press conference about you; and make the whole world appreciate the fact that you have betrayed your union and that your oath of allegiance that you swore towards the Senior Staff Association; you have not been able to uphold it”.

Indefinite nationwide strike

The Senior Staff Association of Universities of Ghana embarked on an indefinite nationwide strike from Tuesday, May 18, 2021.

According to the Association, the decision follows the government’s failure to address the concerns of its members. This, it noted, was after a similar strike action was called off earlier this year.

The strike, comes on the back of the government’s inability to pay the tier-2 pension arrears. This also includes the market premiums and non-basic allowances of members.

Speaking in an interview, Mr. Zakaria intimated that, government has reliably failed to address their concerns despite earlier promises.

“We submitted our letter of intent to the National Labour Commission (NLC) on the 7th of this month. But we have not heard anything. We have been disappointed so many times”.

Prior to this, the Association, in February 2021, declared a strike over the same concerns. However, it suspended the strike after the National Labour Commission secured an interlocutory injunction from the High Court against them.

The NLC had earlier given a directive that the government should do everything possible to pay the outstanding pension arrears to the Association by end of March 2021.