Kofi Asare

UTAG, the government must compromise over strike – Kofi Asare

The Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare, expects some form of compromise from the government and the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) to pave the way for the impasse to be resolved.

Mr. Asare feels the reported appeals from the government to UTAG, whose five-week strike has crippled public universities, will not yield results.

The two parties are expected to meet later today, Thursday, over the strike.

“For us, appealing to UTAG is not part of the negotiation. Appeals should have been made in week one, not week five,” he said on The Point of View on Citi TV.

“If the government is ready to make concessions and UTAG is also ready to make concessions, we can see progress, but if we want to continue pretending that appeals can resolve a five-week-old strike, nothing will happen.”

Also on the show, the Bulisa South MP, Dr. Clement Apaak, said the government needed to make satisfactory moves to calm the impasse.

“Having been a student before and being a lecturer now, and knowing the position that UTAG has taken, if the government doesn’t put something substantial on the table, my optimism will be diminished.”

“They [UTAG] believe they have been pushed to the wall. It is either now or never,” Dr. Apaak said.

UTAG has been on strike since January 10 to force the government to restore the conditions of service agreed upon in 2012.

The 2012 conditions of service pegged the Basic plus Market Premium of a lecturer at $2,084.42.

UTAG has complained that the current arrangement has reduced its members’ basic premiums to $997.84

Source: CITINEWSROOM