President of the UCC Chapter of UTAG, Dr. Samuel Boadi-Kusi, has disclosed that the ongoing negotiations between UTAG and the various government stakeholders will soon be finalized.
Speaking on the progress as the stipulated 14-day negotiation period is nearing, he indicated that UTAG is set to meet with the stakeholders from Wednesday to Friday (2-4 March) to bring to a conclusion the matters raised.
“We met with the employer side of the stakeholders last week Thursday to formally table what we have been talking about all these while. From tomorrow till Friday, we have all agreed to meet on how to bring a finality to this.”
Dr. Samuel Boadi-Kusi
Dr. Boadi-Kusi intimated that UTAG has not yet had a counter offer from the side of the employer, so after the meeting tomorrow, the Association will know what the employer will present, then they will take it from there.
The UCC-UTAG President indicated that with the negotiations that took place last week, the Minister of Education and Employment and Labor were all present. However, he noted that the Finance Minister was represented at the meeting.
Commenting on if he foresees a positive progress with the negotiations, Dr. Boadi-Kusi believed that a clear headway will be made known after UTAG’s meeting with the stakeholders tomorrow. He stated that UTAG doesn’t want a situation whereby the employer will come to the negotiation table with no solution in hand which will result in the emergence of other issues.
“We all want to act in good faith. So, whatever the situation is, they should come clean and based on that, we can all reason together and find a solution.”
Dr. Samuel Boadi-Kusi
Allowance payment can be figured out
Touching on the Finance Minister’s indication that there’s no money, Dr. Boadi-Kusi averred that both parties can figure out a way to settle the payment of the allowances.
“This is not the first time we are hearing that there is no money. We are lecturers and we understand the economic dynamics.”
Dr. Samuel Boadi-Kusi
Dr. Boadi-Kusi posited that there are other measures that can be put in place to see to the payment modalities of the allowance in the proposal placed before government by UTAG.
“When we were taking our proposal, we gave different scenarios as to how the payments can be made. We told government that if it can pay it all, fine. If they can’t they should have a roadmap as to how the payments can be made.”
Dr. Samuel Boadi-Kusi
The UCC-UTAG President noted that if the employers have carefully studied the proposal by UTAG, it will show they have put in place reasonable measures.
“We understand the condition has worsened and something ought to be done. I know given the framework, we should be able to arrive at a decision despite the economic situation.”
Dr. Samuel Boadi-Kusi
According to Dr. Boadi-Kusi, the stakeholders involved should act in good faith to see to the successful end of the negotiations following the assurance by the President that such a situation will not happen again.
The Lecturer then clarified that the decision by some of the UTAG chapters not to suspend the strike was not supported by UTAG. He disclosed that as it stands, all lecturers have returned to the classroom for lectures to take place as earlier agreed.
Touching on the recovery, he stated that there is no doubt the semester will be extended to make up for the time lost. He averred that this shouldn’t be so much of a challenge.
“The various academic boards have revised their academic calendars. So, the weeks of lecture periods that have been lost will be made up for. We will recover”
Dr. Samuel Boadi-Kusi
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