The National Labour Commission (NLC) has summoned all four tertiary education unions and their employers to appear before it to address the ongoing strike action in the country’s higher education institutions.
The unions involved are the Senior Staff Association of Universities of Ghana (SSA-UoG), the Teachers’ and Educational Workers Union of the Trades Union Congress (TEWU of TUC), the Federation of University Senior Staff Associations of Ghana (FUSSAG), and the Technical Universities Administrators Association of Ghana (TUAAG).
The summons follows a High Court directive issued on February 13, 2026, which called on the striking workers to immediately suspend their industrial action, describing the strike as illegal, and restrained them from continuing the stoppage.
The NLC said the directive was aimed at ensuring a return to normal academic activities while the issues raised by the unions were resolved.
In a letter signed by the Acting Executive Secretary of the NLC, Dr Bernice A. Welbeck, the unions and their employers were directed to appear before the Commission on Wednesday, February 18, 2026, at 2:00 p.m. at the Commission’s office on the fifth floor of the Ghana Olympic Committee Building, adjacent to the Ridge Hospital.
The Commission said the meeting would focus on the matters that triggered the strike and urged all parties to cooperate fully to facilitate a swift and amicable resolution.
The four major tertiary education unions declared an indefinite strike in early February 2026 over alleged breaches of agreed conditions of service and unpaid financial obligations by government agencies and public universities.
The industrial action was declared primarily by the Senior Staff Associations of the Universities of Ghana (SSA-UoG), the Teachers’ and Educational Workers Union of the Trades Union Congress (TEWU-TUC) and the Federation of University Senior Staff Association of Ghana and the Technical Universities Administrators Association of Ghana (TUAAG).
According to the unions the strike was triggered by unilateral changes to their conditions of service and this included the replacement of overtime allowances for senior staff with a “call-in allowance” following guidelines from the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC).
They argued that the move violated an agreement signed in 2021 that recognised overtime entitlements for senior university staff.
The strike action has disrupted academic and administrative operations across public universities, affecting lectures, examinations and day-to-day services.
The government engaged with union representatives, with the Deputy Minister of Education appealing to the unions to consider the impact of the action on teaching and learning and to pursue dispute resolution mechanisms.
However, the call by the Deputy Minister seems to have fallen on deaf ears as the strike action continued and entered into the second week.
BY CLIFF EKUFUL
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