Address salary disparities in public universities -TEWU urges FWSC
The Public Universities Locals of the Teachers and Educational Workers’ Union of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has called on the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) to ensure that public universities address the disparities and distortions between junior and senior members of the universities which have occurred because of the implementation of the new salary policy.
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They said the issues had been discussed at several fora and various agreements had been made among the union, FWSC and the Vice-Chancellors of Ghana (VCG) on the matter but the implementation of those agreements had become a mirage.
The union explained that the implementation of the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) in 2011 for employees of public universities in the country had led to distortions, disparities and the creation of a wide salary gap between the junior and senior staff of the universities.
The General Secretary of the union, Mr Raph A. Apaaya, who made the call at a pres
Bad faith
“As at today, FWSC has failed to do what we have all agreed to do. We think FWSC has acted in bad faith. The union and the public universities management have carried out every instruction/demand by the FWSC but they have failed to do their part.
“We want to draw the attention of the FWSC and the VCG and all stakeholders that if by the end of December 2015 our concerns are not addressed, every blame should be placed at the doorstep of the FWSC and the public universities management,” Mr Apaaya said.
He expressed the hope that the FWSC and the public universities managements would work to resolve those concerns to avoid any labour unrest in the public universities.
Due process
He said the union had followed due processes for the past three to four years, “yet, we are not seeing results,” adding that members of the union “shall not accept any further delay in resolving our concerns, which may lead us into 2016.”
Mr Apaaya assured that members of the union would continue to play their role as educational workers in the delivery of quality education as their contribution towards the development of human resource and, therefore, expected same from the FWSC, the public universities managements and all stakeholders.
Background
Giving a background, he said since the implementation of the SSSS, various steps had been taken, including the setting up of a subcommittee of the Committee of Universities Local Union Executives (CULUE) on February 3, 2012 to look into the issues emanating from the implementation of the SSSS.
“The subcommittee worked hard and submitted a report on February 4, 2013, which indicated that the Single Spine Pay Policy had indeed distorted the public universities pay structure and widened the gap between the junior and senior staff, making the junior staff worse off.
“The union, therefore, officially drew the attention of the management of the public universities and FWSC to the distortions, disparities and the gap created as a result of the implementation of the SSSS,” Mr Apaaya explained.
He said in May 2013, the FWSC set up a technical committee to look into the concerns. “This technical committee was chaired by Ms Eva Addo, but the process was abandoned midway,” and the union issued a communiqué giving the deadline of September 6, 2013 for their concerns to be addressed.
Earlier strike
Mr Apaaya added that when the FWSC failed to address their concerns, the union was forced to make a formal complaint to the National Labour Commission (NLC), which culminated in an industrial action.
He explained that the VCG intervened and at a meeting among the union, the VCG and the FWSC, “the meeting resolved that the technical committee should conclude its work and submit their report for consideration in December 2013.”
Mr Apaaya said another sub-committee was set up, which submitted its report to the FWSC on February 27, 2015, and requested that the FWSC should write to the universities management to enable them implement the decisions reached at the meeting which the FWSC allegedly failed to do.