Executives of the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) say they are preparing to lodge a complaint with the National labour Commission (NLC) after their employers reneged on an agreement to pay their salary increments.
The General Secretary of TEWU, Mr Daniel Anim Antwi, told the Daily Graphic that a 17 per cent salary increase for this year that should have been paid to members in two tranches from August did not materialize. He said the government and the executives of TEWU had agreed that the arrears from January to July would be paid in two instalments, with the first being paid in September and the second in October, but no payment was made by the government in either month.
Local executives of TEWU, therefore, met a week ago and agreed to a resolution demanding full payment of the arrears in November and forwarded their concerns to their management, this is, the vice-chancellors of the universities.
Mr Anim-Antwi said no response had been had from the Vice-chancellors, for which reason a meeting was held yesterday with their members to brief them on the development. He stressed that the executives of TEWU had not declared any strike and that they expected their members to go back to work after the meeting.
To those who had not gone back to work, Mr Anim Antwi said he had already appealed to them to continue working as normal, as the executives resorted to the options available to them to address their grievances.
In an interview, a source at the University of Ghana, Legon, said although there had not been an official declaration of a strike on the Legon campus, many of the workers had taken advantage of the situation to stay away from work.
The source, who would want remain anonymous, said many of them reported for duty yesterday but refused to work as expected. It said members of the union were expected to meet their executives today for a final decision on the matter. Meanwhile, reports from the Kwame University of Science and Technology (KNUST) indicate that many of the workers who belong to TEWU failed to perform their duties yesterday.
The Ashanti Regional correspondent, Kwame Asare Boadu, reports that academic work at KNUST was disrupted by the indefinite strike embarked upon any members of TEWU over unpaid salary arrears.
Critical areas, including faculty libraries, were locked as the members of TEWU stayed out of work. That followed the expiry of a one-week ultimatum they gave to the government to pay their seven-month salary arrears.
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