An Accra High Court has failed to grant a motion of ex parte interlocutory injunction filed by the National Labour Commission (NLC) against the strike by the University Teachers Association (UTAG).
By filing the ex parte motion, the NLC wanted the High Court to place an injunction on the strike without notice to UTAG or give UTAG the opportunity to argue why they should not be restrained from continuing with the strike pending a final determination of the main motion.
Prime News sources close to the matter say the NLC has been compelled to file another motion of interlocutory injunction against the strike, this time on notice – which means UTAG will get the opportunity to tell the court why the injunction should not be granted.
Within UTAG, the ruling by the court has been hailed as a victory for rule of law and an end to days when the NLC would secretly go to the courts to receive injunction order at the blind spot of labour.
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A senior lecturer at the University of Ghana, Legon and an executive of the UTAG branch at the University, Prof Ransford Gyampo, said the Association was prepared to fight the NLC in court.
“We will fight the remaining battles in court and do trust in the competence and independence of the judiciary in handling this serious matter and bringing finality to the battle for better conditions of service by labor,” he has said in a post on social media.
UTAG members on all 15 public university campuses are on strike to force the government to restore the conditions of service agreed upon in 2012.
The 2012 conditions of service pegged the Basic plus Market Premium of a lecturer at $2,084.42.
UTAG has complained that the current arrangement has reduced its members’ basic premiums to $997.84.
The three-week-old strike has sparked worry among students as they anticipate that the academic calendar will be disrupted.