University Senior Staff Declare Indefinite Strike, Join Agitation For 20% Cost Of Living Allowance

• Senior Staff of the University of Ghana have declared an indefinite strike to push the government to pay them Cost of Living Allowance
• Already, four teacher unions have declared an indefinite strike over the same allowance
• The allowance is calculated as 20% of the salaries of public workers which they say would cushion them against the economic hardship

The staff of the University of Ghana have joined other organised labour unions on Wednesday to declare an indefinite strike over the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA).

The latest development is expected to pressure the government even more as it juggles multiple agitations over the 20% COLA on the labor front.

Labour unions in the country want the government to pay them 20% of their salaries as COLA to cushion them from the economic hardship.

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Teachers explain why they walked out on gov’t during 20% COLA negotiations

At a press conference on Wednesday, July 13, 2022, the Senior Staff Association of the University of Ghana, the country’s premier university, said its members would remain home until the government meets their demand.

General Secretary of the Association, Hector Owoahene-Acheampong, said senior staff at the popular public universities had been treated unfairly for many years.

Already, four teacher unions have declared an indefinite strike of the COLA.

The Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT), Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU), the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), and the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) have met the government twice to negotiate their demands. However, both meetings have failed to reach a consensus.

The Ghana Medical Association (GMA), the mother body for all doctors in the country, have indicated that they may join the agitation for the COLA soon. The GMA said its members, in principle, support the payment of the COLA.

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Ghanaian Doctors join agitation for Cost of Living Allowances

Striking teacher unions accuse the government of holding them hostage as negotiations over COLA fail

YEN.com.gh has reported previously that the four influential teacher unions that have left the classrooms of public schools since July 4 over their demand for Cost of Living Allowance say the government was holding them hostage.

On Tuesday, representatives of the teacher unions walked out of a meeting with government negotiators trying to get them to call off their strike. The agitating teacher unions accused the government of causing the stalemate because it came to the negotiating table with an untenable demand.

“They are not ready to welcome us to this meeting, and we cannot begrudge them, and that is why we are walking out,” one of the representatives of the teacher unions told Citi News on Tuesday, July 12, 2022.

Source: YEN.com.gh