The Bolgatanga Technical University (BTU) Branch of the Technical University Teachers’ Association of Ghana (TUTAG), has hinted at plans to embark on an industrial action effective July 31, 2023.
Citi News can confirm that the TUTAG-BTU branch’s intended strike action is due to the fact that efforts to get the university’s management to implement the new retirement benefit component of their conditions of service, like all other Technical Universities, have been unsuccessful due to alleged ambiguity in the interpretation.
The management of BTU is seeking an interpretation of the end-of-service benefit (ESB) clause for Technical Universities in order to decide whether or not to effect payment of retirement benefits for the TUTAG-BTU branch.
However, the TUTAG-BTU branch contends that Article 16 of the conditions of service unambiguously states that “On the retirement of an employee, the one-month basic salary of the month of retirement shall be paid for every successful year of service for an employee only after 10 years of continuous service or attaining a voluntary retirement or compulsory retirement age or dying in service.”
They further argue that Section 42, Clause 6 of the Technical Universities Act, 2016, Act 922 (As Amended), which states that “A person in the employment of a polytechnic in existence immediately before the coming into force of this Act shall, subject to the requirements of the standardised status and Scheme of Service for the Technical University, be deemed to have been duly employed by the respective Technical University established under this Act,” is unequivocal regarding their end-of-service benefit (ESB).
Citi News sources indicate that TUTAG-BTU has served two separate letters to the National Labour Commission (NLC) and the Vice Chancellor of BTU, stating that they will not accept any interpretation other than that enshrined in the Technical Universities Act.
The TUTAG-BTU branch has admonished the university’s management to commence without delay the ESB payments based on the newly approved conditions of service being interpreted and implemented by other Technical Universities across the country, or they will incur the wrath of the teachers.
However, they (TUTAG-BTU) have unanimously served notice of strike action by the 31st of July 2023, if management does not reconsider its decision to commence payments of their ESB.
