Editor-in-Chief of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr. has lambasted the National Labour Commission for securing an injunction against UTAG.
The University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) are currently on strike, demanding government to remedy their conditions of service.
As a result of the strike, the University lecturers have withdrawn from all teaching services.
Injunction
But on Friday, 6th August, the National Labour Commission (NLC) secured an injunction in an Accra High Court to compel them to return to work while negotiations continued.
In reply, UTAG President, Professor Charles Marfo, in an interview on Peace FM’s morning show ”Kokrokoo” on Monday, 9th August, indicated that the Labour Commission resort to court may have worsened the situation as it has now opened up for them to also file a counter suit.
Counter Suit
The UTAG President disclosed the Association has instructed its lawyers to take up the matter.
”We were almost reaching a consensus until the government’s court issue arose. Now, a whole new ballgame has started because we’re also asking our lawyers to go to court . . . We were getting there. We were pushing; now this argument I’m making is lost,” he said.
Pratt Rebukes NLC
Speaking to host Kwami Sefa Kayi on Tuesday’s edition of ‘Kokrokoo’, Kwesi Pratt stated emphatically that a legal suit shouldn’t have been an option in addressing the impasse.
“Now that you have gone for the injunction but the lecturers have defied the injunction, will you jail them?”, he asked, adding, “jailing them won’t work . . . so, the option of injunction shouldn’t have been considered at all”.
He further stated that the UTAG strike doesn’t pertain to the University lecturers only but also exposes some economic lapses.
According to him, the strike is about “how to manage the economy. It’s about who controls the resources of Africa. It’s about the type of leadership Africa has and so on. It goes much, much deeper than just strike by University teachers…”
He, therefore, called on the government to have a hoslitic approach to the issue saying, “I believe everybody’s prayer is for Ghana to become better for every person so that we will continually have peace and progress”.
