C.K Tedam University of Technology has been in existence for quite some time; initially flying the colours and name of the University of Development Studies, Navrongo. The change of name comes several years after the establishment of the University. There is an ongoing nationwide strike of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) and this has brought all academic activity for universities to a standstill. The major issue encompassing this boycott of provision of academic services comes on the foot of a 4% salary increment agreement contrary to a larger percentage increase in salary to offset the price hikes in the economy for the UTAG members by government.
According to a press release from the CKT-UTAS SRC, in addition to the nationwide strike by UTAG, the university’s own workers’ unions including UTAG, GAUA. TEWU and SSA-UoG are also on strike as a result of unresolved disagreements on a review of remunerations paid to the staff by the Ghana Tertiary Education Committee. From the press release, the Ghana Tertiary Education Committee has per its regulations decided to review the remuneration paid to workers of the CKT-UTAS. This downward review of salaries has not been taken lightly by various factions of workers in the University.
The basis of this review being the change in name of the university and thus calling for a reassessment of the working population of the university and also a review of commensurate remuneration to be paid to the various levels of employment per the salary scale of the CAGD IPPD2 Payment of Salaries Scheme. This migration comes with shortfalls which include a view of the staff of the university as new employees and as such a downgrade in their salary scales to suit those of new employees; which does not apply due to the existence of their contracts before the change in name.
The SRC President of the University, Master Ebenezer Opoku-Mensah, stated in the communique that
“We believe CKT-UTAS staff deserve better and the innocent students should not be made to suffer for a misunderstanding between Workers’ Union of CKT-UTAS and the government.”
Master Opoku-Mensah therefore called on the appropriate stakeholders to resolve issues on time as the time loss is detrimental the timeline of both graduating students and continuous students considering the damage the Covid-19 Pandemic had caused over the past year.
Source: Hypercitigh.com
