Our Revered Professors!
Your fight for better pay and improved conditions of service is a worthy one, but it must be fought competently and devoid of the usual politicking. You are not in the soup alone. Pay in Ghana is generally low. It is also very unequal. These are historical facts for which workers, unions and employers, including government, must work together to change. There are no easy solutions to this problem, which is why although a long-standing problem, we are still grappling with it.
Individual pay in the Ghanaian public sector is much lower compared to our peers in Sub-Saharan Africa. In other words, the average public servant in Ghana is paid much less than their counterparts elsewhere on the continent. Curiously, Ghana spends much higher proportion of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on public sector remuneration compared to other African countries.
Past attempts to solve the problems of low pay and pay inequities have failed. The Single Spine Pay Policy has failed to address low pay and the gap between the public service (single spine beneficiaries) and the rest of the public sector. Similar failures ultimately doomed the Ghana Universal Salary Structure (GUSS) introduced in 1998. In 1994, the Gyampoh Salaries Review Commission had good recommendations for improving pay in the public sector, which government accepted. But it ended there, none of those recommendations were implemented.
These few examples of attempted reforms vividly illustrate the problem. Our University Professors are poorly paid and so are the teachers and other workers in pre-university education. The Doctors and nurses are equally affected. The civil servants, the police, Immigration, Fire and Prison Service officers, all suffer from the canker of low pay.
The current standoff between our professors and government shows the complexity of the problem and the need for compromises on all sides. In the middle of negotiating their conditions of service and when almost all negotiating items had been resolved, UTAG, surprisingly, introduced two new items, which had previously not been part of the negotiations. First, they want an increase in their basic salary to US$2000.00 per month. Secondly, they want 114% of their base pay as market premium. When it was pointed out to them that negotiations of base pay cannot be between UTAG and government alone, and that by law and practice, the base pay is negotiated by the Public Sector Joint Negotiating Standing Committee (PSJNSC), they abandoned that demand. A demand for US$2000 basic pay for UTAG members alone would have spelled the end of the Single Spine Salary Structure. In retrospect, our professors did not know the implication of their demand. Thankfully, they abandoned that demand.
Then the professors moved on to demand a market premium that has been frozen at their 2012 level. They and other unions/associations have signed up to this. A government white paper dating back to 2013, on the subject says “…Market Premium shall be determined as an absolute amount and not as a percentage of basic salary. Despite this, UTAG is demanding a market premium of 114% of the basic salary of their members, because when the market premium was introduced, it happened to be 114% of the basic salary at that time. This demand violates government policy, and if it is granted by government, all other workers will be energized to demand same, rending useless a key government policy on pay. It will further imperil the already precarious fiscal situation of the country, while setting in motion further industrial unrests. A post-pandemic Ghanaian economy simply cannot absorb such demands. This is part of the complexity referred to earlier.
The 2013, Government White Paper on Market Premium defines it as “essentially an absolute amount paid only to employees with critical skills in short supply”. The idea is to attract and retain such skills in the economy. The truth is, while the skills of all lecturers are important, not all the skills are in “short supply”. The idea that every lecturer ought to be paid a premium regardless of the nature of their skills itself is absurd. It makes nonsense of the concept of market premium. In any case, the Government White Paper is clear that “Market Premium shall not apply to all jobs within a particular service classification or be granted across board”. Neither shall it be determined through negotiations.
In its proper conception, as captured in the Government White Paper, market premium is at the discretion of the employer – government. The White Paper says, Government (working through the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission) shall determine, based on government priorities, the list of scarce skills and jobs and publish same in the Gazette.
Why University Professors will strike over such an issue is difficult to understand. An issue over which UTAG has very little leverage. If a market survey is done by a competent and impartial body and concludes that the skills of political science lecturers are important, but they are not in short supply and therefore not eligible to receive market premium, how will UTAG challenge that? The employer has every right to determine which skills are important and market trends will determine which are in short supply.
I am particularly puzzled, that when so many of their demands have been met by a government facing a precarious financing environment, UTAG does not seem to appreciate the magnanimity of the government. In 2019, government increased the Research Allowance of lecturers by 100%. In 2020, the Research Allowance again was increased by 50%. Before the 2019 increase, the Research Allowance had not changed since 2009. In a meeting on October 6, 2021, Government and UTAG agreed on a payment schedule for a revised Research Allowance as follows: in 2021, the Research Allowance was increased by 66.7%; and in 2022, it will increase by 140% and by 33.3% in 2023. A further increase of 28% is agreed for 2024. Essentially, from 2016 to 2022, the Research Allowance of our University Lectures has been increased by 1,100%; and between 2016 and 2024, the Research Allowance will increase by nearly 2000%.
Moreover, effective from January 2020, government and UTAG agreed a non-Basic Allowance pending the negotiations of UTAG’s proposals on their conditions of service. The only remaining issue is the Market Premium. At a meeting between the parties (Government and UTAG) in April 2021 it was agreed that the Market Premium can only be determined after the completion of a Labour Market Survey (LMS) in line with the 2013 Government White Paper on the subject. In December 2021, the LMS was completed by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS).
In January 2022, government submitted a copy of the LMS report to UTAG. The Association promised to give its comments within two weeks. This, it has failed to do. Instead, UTAG announced its intention to strike on January 10, 2022. The strike remains.
Government has appealed to UTAG to call off the strike for negotiations to resume. The Association refused to heed the plea. The National Labour Commission has declared the strike illegal and ordered UTAG to return to Lecture Halls and resume discussions with Government. UTAG has refused. The High Court has ordered UTAG to call off the strike and return to negotiations. UTAG has refused to comply with the court order.
This does not look like an Association that is ready to negotiate and play by the rules. Industrial Relations, according to experts in the field is a rule-based practice. Those engaged in it must demonstrate a certain willingness to abide by its rules, however much they may dislike some of the rules. It also involves compromises. Parties do not always get all that they want. Those insisting on getting everything they demanded are not negotiating; they are imposing their will.
Calling off a strike for negotiations to resume isn’t too much to ask for. UTAG may be afraid of delays on the part of Government. But that is inevitable. The LMS report by the GSS delayed for year because of COVID-19. No one could have done anything about it. The demand for Market Premium for all lecturers is conceptually invalid. More importantly, it has implications that go beyond UTAG. Other worker groups will demand same. I suspect government is mindful of that. Given the fiscal crunch facing the nation, a responsible government will not just cede to any demands. It has so generously increased Research Allowance for lecturers because it is specific to them.
UTAG Executives and its members must reflect and pull back from the brink. They should remember that the year-long strike by lecturers in the 1990s only succeeded in disrupting the educational path of students. UTAG must know that this will not be the only negotiations it will do with government. You should also know that even you secure the 114% Market Premium, it will not solve all your concerns over pay, and working conditions. Importantly, our professors must remember that their relations with Government will outlive the current individuals leading both the Association and Government.
To defy a court order is to cross the line from industrial relations into the unhealthy and stormy waters of our partisan politics. Our professors must rise above the partisan politics tearing this country apart. The GOLD MUST NOT RUST!
