Staff of C. K. Tedam University of Technology and Applied Science (CKT-UTAS) are threatening to embark on an industrial action over a decision by the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) to migrate them onto the Controller and Accountant General Department Payroll system.
According to the staff, the planned migration will downgrade their current status from “old staff” to “new staff” and put them on lower salaries thereby worsening the economic hardships they are currently facing as result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The staff, in a press statement, signed by leaders of the various staff unions, contended that the attempt by GTEC to migrate them onto to CAGD payroll while there are ongoing stakeholder consultations on the matter facilitated by same GTEC is an act of bad and breach of the labor laws of the country which do not permit an employer to unilaterally vary employees’ conditions of service.
“We are by a copy of this Press Release notifying the NLC and Government that we have resolved to embark on an industrial action effective Monday, 2nd August, 2021 if we do not receive any favorable communication on the road map for payment of our salaries from August onwards and halting of the intended unilateral migration process pending the final resolution of the matter by the NLC,” they said.
They added “In our earlier press release dated 5th March, 2021, we indicated that this intended migration classifies us as new staff and will see members losing their basic salaries and allowances in the ranges of 5% to 59% due to placement on lower salary scales. We are, on the contrary, old staff of the University for Development Studies (UDS) now in a new university. This conduct contravenes sections 67, 68 and 69 of the Labour Act, 2003 (651), which do not allow an employer to unilaterally vary the Conditions of Service of employees. These disparities and worsening Conditions of Service associated with the intended migration will further aggravate the economic hardship of members amidst the world pandemic and economic crisis.”
They condemned the action of GTEC describing it as unacceptable.
“We condemn in no uncertain terms the unilateral and clandestine attempts by the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) to migrate us at a time that Stakeholder consultations are on-going as directed by the National Labour Commission with GTEC being the facilitator. This sign of bad faith exhibited is unacceptable and shows clearly that they are relying on the financial vulnerability of our university to forcefully migrate us”.
The National Labor Commission (NLC), they noted, directed that GTEC facilitates a stakeholder deliberations on concerns they had raised while CAGD halts the processes to migrate them onto the new payroll.
But despite agreeing at the first stakeholder meeting of the unions and CAGD under the supervision of GTEC to maintain the current payment system while CAGD put in place the necessary systems and train schools’ staff to operate such systems for a test run of 3 months to be conducted, GTEC is going ahead with the migration processes on their blindside even though CAGD is yet to put in place the necessary systems as agreed.
This, they say, “contravenes the directive of the NLC and the stakeholder terms of agreements”.
They are, therefore, notifying government and the NLC of their intention to embark on a strike on Monday, August 2, 2021 if they do not receive favorable communication on the road map for payment of their salaries going forward and halting of the migration processes pending the outcome of the stakeholder deliberations.
Read the full statement below:
For Immediate release 26/07/2021
NOTICE OF INDUSTRIAL ACTION ON THE INTENDED MIGRATION OF STAFF OF CKT-UTAS TO CONTROLLER AND ACCOUNTANT GENERAL’S DEPARTMENT PAYROLL (IPPD2)
With great concern and resentment, we the Members of UTAG, GAUA, SSA-UoG and TEWU of C. K. Tedam University of Technology and Applied Sciences, Navrongo, hereby request the immediate suspension of the surreptitious attempts by GTEC to migrate staff of our University together with S.D. Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD-UBIDS) onto the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) IPPD2. We condemn in no uncertain terms the unilateral and clandestine attempts by the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) to migrate us at a time that Stakeholder consultations are on-going as directed by the National Labour Commission with GTEC being the facilitator. This sign of bad faith exhibited is unacceptable and shows clearly that they are relying on the financial vulnerability of our university to forcefully migrate us.
In our earlier press release dated 5th March, 2021, we indicated that this intended migration classifies us as new staff and will see members losing their basic salaries and allowances in the ranges of 5% to 59% due to placement on lower salary scales. We are, on the contrary, old staff of the University for Development Studies (UDS) now in a new university. This conduct contravenes sections 67, 68 and 69 of the Labour Act, 2003 (651), which do not allow an employer to unilaterally vary the Conditions of Service of employees. These disparities and worsening Conditions of Service associated with the intended migration will further aggravate the economic hardship of members amidst the world pandemic and economic crisis.
The directive issued on 25th March, 2021 by the NLC requested that GTEC should facilitate a stakeholder deliberation on the concerns raised by the Unions while CAGD halts any further migration of our staff. That, the status quo be maintained implying that staff of CKT-UTAS continue to receive their salaries through the payroll of the University for Development Studies (UDS).
At the very first stakeholder meeting of the Unions and CAGD facilitated by GTEC on 14th of July 2021, the CAGD among other things is to ensure that the IPPD2 application and add-ons are installed on the various Campuses, train staff of the Finance Directorates, and collate payroll data to conduct a three-month test run, which will be parallel to the present payroll systems of the individual campuses. That, the status quo be maintained as stakeholder consultations are on-going. While CAGD is yet to install the said application and put in place the needed infrastructure, GTEC is working behind the scenes to get our staff migrated onto the CAGD IPPD2. This posturing of the CAGD and GTEC contravenes the directive of the NLC and the stakeholder terms of agreements.
We are by a copy of this Press Release notifying the NLC and Government that we have resolved to embark on an industrial action effective Monday, 2nd August, 2021 if we do not receive any favourable communication on the road map for payment of our salaries from August onwards and halting of the intended unilateral migration process pending the final resolution of the matter by the NLC.
