The Polytechnic Workers Association, Ghana (POWAG), has called on the government to grant approval to replace retired, deceased or resigned staff to meet the expanded human resource needs of Polytechnics in the country.

It noted with regret that the government’s embargo on recruitment or replacement of staff had affected members of the association, who are being overstretched with increased workload.

The association, which has more than 1,800 members, made the appeal at a news conference in Sunyani.

Nana Kwapong Offei Boohene, the National President of POWAG, who spoke on behalf of the association during the press conference, said the association appreciated the efforts by the government to convert the Polytechnics into Technical Universities.

The association also reminded drafters of the Technical Universities Bill that the composition of all statutory bodies, especially the Council, should not contain the name of any union but rather staff/job classification or categories.

“The Draft Bill of the Technical University, as distributed earlier, contains the name of TEWU, which represents minority of one class of workers (Junior and Senior Staff in the Polytechnic)”, he said.

The association noted that this could incite industrial disharmony in the Polytechnics, since it would not offer fair representation of staff on Council and other statutory bodies.

The association explained that if passed, the bill would be at variance with the labour Act (651), and called on the drafters of the bill to correct Article 51 (1) as recommended by the Association at a stakeholders forum on the Bill in Accra earlier this year.