A LABOUR Division of the Accra High Court has urged the leadership of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) and the National Labour Commission (NLC) to settle their dispute out of court.
The teachers’ union and the NLC have been at loggerheads for weeks following a decision by UTAG to embark on an industrial strike which has stalled academic activities in the public universities.
NLC had gone to court to secure an enforcement of its orders on the UTAG members to call off their strike and return to the classrooms.
Appearing before the court Thursday, Eva Amihere, counsel for NLC, told the court that they had two separate applications to move.
The first application, she said, was a motion for the enforcement of the directives issued by NLC on January 13, 2022, for UTAG members to call off the strike.
She said the second motion is for an interlocutory injunction to stop UTAG from continuing with their strike.
The court presided over by Justice Frank Rockson Aboadwe, however, requested to meet the two parties in chambers.
Kwesi Keli-Delataa, Counsel for UTAG, after the in-camera hearing, told journalists that the court had given them up to February 10, 2022, to settle the dispute and report back to the court on the progress of their negotiations.
He said the parties were encouraged in between time to try and engage so that the outstanding issues leading to the strike can be resolved.
He added that if the issues are not resolved by February 10, and the general membership of UTAG decides that the strike will not be called off, then the two applications have to be heard on their merit, for the court to take a decision on them.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak