Polytechnics across the country risk closure following threats by Senior Members in Administration to go on strike should the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) continue to fail in honouring an existing agreement it had with the Commission.

Impeccable sources from the grapevine of Polytechnics across the country have revealed to myjoyonline.com that barring any action from the FWSC or intervention from the Ministry of Education, all Non-Academic Senior Members will embark on a nationwide strike anytime soon.

On August 21, 2012, according to communique in the possession of myjoyonline.com, the FWSC agreed among other things that “the existing relativities between Senior Members Academic and Senior Members Non-Academic of Public Universities be used to arrive at market premium factor of Senior Members Non-Academic of public Polytechnics”.

The crust of that agreement is that there is no difference in the levels between Academic and Non-Academic Senior Members should that become the case with Public Universities, same will apply in Polytechnics.

And though that has become the case in the Public Universities with Senior Non-Academic Members being put at par with their Academic Colleagues, the FWSC has since refused to let the same principle apply in the Polytechnics in spite of the agreement entered into.

Even though the Chief Executive of the FWSC, Mr. George Smith-Graham signed this communique on behalf of the Commission with Mr. Cornelius Yawson, Head of Grievances as his witness, the FWSC has refused to make good the contents of the agreement leading to massive displeasure within Senior Members Non-Academic in the Public Polytechnics.

A letter written on March 15, 2013, by the Commission and Signed by its Director of Finance and Administration, Mr. Joseph N. K. Gadikor, which is in possession of myjoyonline.com, has revealed that the Commission wrote to the Ministry of Finance asking the Non-Academic Senior Members in Public Universities to be brought to the same level as their colleagues in academic.

“We are not asking to be at par with our colleagues in the universities; all we are saying is that there should be no difference in the levels of the polytechnic lecturer and administrator, who are all senior members because that is what our agreement with the FWSC says,” an aggrieved Senior Member said.  

He said once this has become the case in the universities, he saw no reason why the case should be different in the Polytechnics.

According to our investigations, the FWSC was engaged in a similar posturing during its negotiations with Non-Academic Senior Members the Public Universities until the group took them to court and subsequently, won the case.

It is not too clear if the Commission is waiting for Senior Members in Administration in the Polytechnics to also head to court before it makes good an agreement that they are a party to and which is made in clear and unambiguous terms.

Senior Members in Administration at the Polytechnics occupy very sensitive positions as they are largely the heads of almost all administrative departments in the polytechnics and any strike action by its members would eventually bring work in the polytechnics to a stand-still.

In the face of the many challenges in Ghana’s tertiary institutions and the eminent threat of strikes coming from the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and other labour groups, any strike by GAPA will have dire consequences for the country.