TEWU calls off strike
Executives of the Teacher and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) have called off their indefinite strike. The decision was taken at a meeting on Friday, January 22, 2016.
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The chairman of the Teacher and Educational Workers’ Union (TEWU), Mr Peter Lumor, told the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday that with the commencement of dialogue among the parties, the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), the Vice Chancellors’ Ghana and members of the union, they had decided to call of the strike.
Mr Lumor expressed the hope that progress would be made when human resource directors of the public universities explain the discrepancies in the salary structure in a meeting scheduled for Thursday, January 28, 2016.
“We wish to resolve this issue once and for all. This issue is resolvable!” Mr Lumor stated.
He said TEWU was not a strike “happy” union, but its executives had been forced to call a strike because of the inaction of the FWSC, adding that in several instances, the
FWSC had not even acknowledged that it had received a letter, when the union wrote to it.
That, according to him, was against the Labour Law 2003 (Act 651), which stipulated that when one party wrote to the other, the other party had to respond within two weeks.
“If we write to you and you acknowledge and tell us that you have received the letter and explain further that because of certain engagements you would meet the union at a later date, that would be understandable,” Mr Lumor said.
Strike
On Monday, January 18, 2016, TEWU declared an indefinite strike to press home its demand for the FWSC to correct disparities in salaries arising out of the placement of its members on the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS).
The union complained that there had been disparities between the salaries of members on the last position of the senior staff scale and members on the first position of the junior staff scale, following their placement on the SSSS.
NLC
The National Labour Commission (NLC) on Wednesday, January 22, 2016, directed TEWU to call off its strike because it was illegal, as it had not followed the processes outlined in the Labour Act 2003.
The directive signed by the Acting Executive Secretary, Dr Bernice A Welbeck, said, “the declaration of strike by TEWU is illegal because the union has failed to observe procedures for embarking on strike pursuant to Sections 159 and 160 of the Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651).”
“That should the union fail to call off the strike, the employer may apply the necessary sanctions as prescribed under Section 168 (4) of Act 651,” the statement added.
The NLC further directed that since the FWSC had invited TEWU to a meeting on January 21, 2016, the parties should meet as scheduled and report back to the commission on Wednesday, January 27, 2016.