The National President of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), Dr. Solomon Nunoo, has refuted claims that his outfit has taken an entrenched position ahead of a meeting with the National Labour Commission (NLC) on Wednesday.

Speaking in an interview on NewsNight on Tuesday, he confirmed that UTAG will meet the NLC as scheduled to hear their ruling which will inform their next line of action.

According to him, UTAG will approach the meeting with an open mind.

"Tomorrow is actually to go to the NLC to go and listen to them trying to mediate the process, so we'll listen to them and listen to their ruling and then we'll take a decision from there.

Unfortunately for us, [the NLC] is the only state institution we have when it comes to labour management. And so in this case, we need to go and listen and then we see how they'll handle it.

We go in with an open-mind and then we listen to them. But that does not stop us from commenting on the behaviour of people who are behaving as appendages of government", Professor Nunoo stated.

It will be recalled that, on Saturday, January 8, UTAG announced their decision to embark on an indefinite strike on January 10, 2021. In a statement issued by UTAG, the group said their decision to vacate the classroom had been occasioned by the failure of government to redeem its promises to them.

Consequently, on January 10, the group gave effect to their threat and begun a nationwide strike, which is currently in force. However, the National Labour Commission has expressed its readiness to dialogue with the aggrieved lecturers.

Going into the dialogue with the NLC, UTAG President, Professor Nunoo has stressed that UTAG is hopeful about the meeting despite their suspicion that the NLC is towing the path of government.

"We are hopeful in the sense that anytime you have to declare a strike action, the Labour Act says that you're supposed to give seven days notice. From the timing that we gave the notice up till now, if the Labour Commission had been proactive, they would have come in to try and mediate the process.

But unfortunately that did not take place. So we are optimistic that they'll give a ruling in our favour and then we continue from there", Professor Nunoo said.

Meanwhile, two days into the action by UTAG, some students across the various tertiary institutions in the country have expressed their frustrations over the action.

A number of final year students from the University of Ghana, who spoke to JoyNews said the strike by UTAG is affecting their project works, since there are no lecturers to supervise and give them the needed guidance.