The strike was intended for the forum to press home its demand on the government to transfer funds belonging to it from the Temporary Pension Fund Account (TPFA) with the Bank of Ghana (BOG) into the accounts of the four fund managers responsible for the public sector occupational pension scheme.

 “The forum has resolved to suspend temporarily the intended September 29, 2017, indefinite nationwide strike communicated earlier through our press release dated September 4, 2017, while the joint technical committee completes its work,” the Chairman of the forum, Mr Isaac Bampoe Addo, told journalists in Accra on Thursday.

Membership of the forum

The forum is made up of unions and associations, such as the Health Services Workers Union, the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association, the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), the Ghana Physician Assistants Association and the Ghana Hospital Pharmacists Association.

The rest are the Ghana Association of Certified Registered Anaesthetists, the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the Teachers and Educational Workers’ Union (TEWU) of Ghana, the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), the Coalition of Concerned Teachers-Ghana, Civil and Local Government Staff Association (CLOGSAG) and the Judicial Service Staff Association of Ghana (JUSSAG).

Joint committee

Mr Addo explained that the decision to suspend the strike followed the setting up of a nine-member joint technical committee of government and the unions/associations representing the four public sector tier two pension schemes.

He said the technical committee had up to three weeks to submit a report on the final step at resolving the current problem.

Mr Addo said the forum, therefore, called on all members to remain calm, adding, “we take this opportunity to salute the courage and resolve of our members in this dire period”.

Background

At a press conference early this month, Mr Addo expressed frustrations and disappointment with the manner in which the government and its agencies had reneged on their commitment to an out-of-court settlement negotiated in February 2016.

He explained that one-and-a-half years had gone by since the judgement, and transfer of accumulated five per cent monthly deductions from its members for the tier two pension was lodged with the BOG.