Accra, Feb. 7, GNA- The National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) has reiterated the call on stakeholders, especially Government, in the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) conditions of service standoff to quickly resolve the issues for the resumption of academic activities.
“For us, it is our hope that every engagement regarding the UTAG strike should yield positive results that will allow the lecturers get back to the classrooms for academic activities to begin,” Mr Boakye Yiadom, the President of NUGS, said in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on Monday.
The leadership of NUGS on February 1, 2022, in a statement, appealed to the National Labour Commission (NLC) to resolve the matter out of court.
It said the industrial impasse between UTAG, and the Government was happening at a ‘‘dreadful’’ cost to the university students nationwide leaving them in a state of dilemma.
Mr Yiadom said the Union was monitoring the situation and hoped the engagement would bring finality to the issues and pave way for the start of academic work.
He said parents were spending extra money to keep their wards in school and said it was important the parties made compromises.
The NUGS President said the Union would petition President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for intervention if the negotiations were inconclusive.
On the possible closure of the University of Cape Coast over the 21-Day rule of non-Academic activity, he said: “I doubt if the University will be shut down. I am sure the Minister of Education with the Board of the UCC will resolve the issue for peace to prevail.”
He advised the students to stay out of trouble and be safe while the stakeholders worked to address the issues.
UTAG on Monday, January 10, 2022, embarked on industrial action over “worsening” conditions of service.
The National Labour Commission after hearing their case on Thursday, January 13, 2022, ruled that the strike be called off because it was illegal and did not follow due process.
The fifteen branches of the UTAG in a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency decided to continue with their industrial action despite a directive from the NLC to call it off, necessitating a court action by NLC.
A High Court in Accra (Labour Division) on February 3, 2022, urged the leadership of the NLC and UTAG to settle the matter out of court.
The Court presided over by Justice Frank Rockson Aboadwe gave the NLC and UTAG up to February 10, 2022, to report back to the court.
GNA