Why we are on Strike

Okay, the issue behind the strike are the arrears on the part of our salary called the professional allowance which is about half of what we earn. They already paid the arrears on the other half called the basic salary. The current salary we receive still has the professional allowance pegged at the 2011 level without the 2012 "Market Premium" adjustment. This adjustment was an 18% increase in public employee salaries. But, the Ministry of Finance was instructed to freeze the actual paid salaries of university faculty at the 2011 levels. The union has demanded that the government immediately start paying this increase and pay the arrears from this increase for the year 2012 immediately in one lump sum. Currently, the government owes each faculty member at the University of Ghana a net payment of about 3,000 to 4,000 cedis. UTAG already took the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission to court and won a judgement against them. But, the current government position is that they will pay the arrears in installments of three in May, July, and September. The government has not said anything about starting to pay the "Market Premium" on a regular monthly basis so that arrears do not accumulate in the future.