The Teachers and Educational Workers’ Union (TEWU) of TUC (Ghana) has threatened a strike by the end of October if the government fails to address their concerns about their tier-two pension contributions.

A statement issued and signed by the Acting General Secretary of TEWU, Mr Mark Dankyira Korankye, said the union will not dither joining the current strike of lecturers in the technical universities who are fighting for better conditions of service.

“We wish to state that we will not hesitate to join them soon in the strike because we are in the struggle together. The union is also not happy about the continuous delay on the part of the government in releasing the second-tier contribution of technical university staff from January 2010 to April 2019.

“From 1 January 2020, our members, who will be retiring, stand the danger of going home with nothing as lump sum payment after many years of sacrifices for the nation.

“The board of trustees of the Ghana Polytechnic Workers’ Pension Scheme has made several follow-ups to get the contributions to the Fund Manager to invest toward members’ pension but to no avail.

“The Teachers and Educational Workers’ Union (TEWU) of TUC (Ghana) has, therefore, resolved that if by Thursday, 31 October 2019 these issues are not resolved, we would have no option but to embark on an indefinite strike action until the above issues are resolved”, the statement said.

PRESS RELEASE ON SERIOUS CONCERNS OF UNIONISED MEMBERS OF THE TECHNICAL UNIVERSITIES

The Teachers and Educational Workers’ Union (TEWU) of TUC (Ghana) has been monitoring the labour environment in the technical universities and has noted with serious concern the disregard for TEWU of TUC (Ghana) in the technical universities by the government and for that matter the Ministry of Education and the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) in the discussions and implementation process of migrating staff of the technical universities.

It is sad to note that TEWU, as a major stakeholder, has been completely left out in the negotiation of the migration process.

As it stands, members of TEWU do not know their placement in terms of the migration though we took part in the staff audit conducted by the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE).
Members of TEWU in the technical universities solidarise with the other associations in the technical universities who have embarked on strike.

We wish to state that we will not hesitate to join them soon in the strike because we are in the struggle together. The union is also not happy about the continuous delay on the part of the government in releasing the second-tier contribution of technical university staff from January 2010 to April 2019.

From 1 January 2020, our members, who will be retiring, stand the danger of going home with nothing as lump sum payment after many years of sacrifices for the nation.

The board of trustees of the Ghana Polytechnic Workers’ Pension Scheme has made several follow-ups to get the contributions to the Fund Manager to invest toward members’ pension but to no avail.

The Teachers and Educational Workers’ Union (TEWU) of TUC (Ghana) has, therefore, resolved that if by Thursday, 31 October 2019 these issues are not resolved, we would have no option but to embark on an indefinite strike action until the above issues are resolved.

Issued by the Acting General Secretary of TEWU

Mark Dankyira Korankye