Impact of employee strike action on employment relations in selected Accra, Ghana, public universities.

Abstract

The study investigated the impact of employee strike action regarding employment relations in selected public universities in Accra, Ghana. The study sought to explore the effect of strike action on employment relations, determine its impact in the workplace, identify its causes, determine the factors that promote sound employment relations and identify the measures of addressing strike action in the public universities. The study adopted both descriptive and exploratory research as the main research design. It employed mixed method design where both quantitative and qualitative data was collected from the participants. A sample size of 306 was chosen for the participation in the study based on the total population of about 1500 staff. Purposive and stratified sampling techniques were used to select the participants for the study. The study utilised both questionnaires and interviews as the main data collection instruments. Reliability and validity of the research instruments were tested using Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient and Factor Analysis. The quantitative data was analysed using SPSS version 21.0, while the qualitative data was analysed manually using thematic analysis. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were also employed in the study. The quantitative results revealed that employee strike action affects employment relations in terms of loss of remuneration (67.5%) and unhealthy relationship (73.5%). The qualitative result on the other hand complimented the quantitative results which revealed that strike action leads to loss of remuneration (n= 5) and unhealthy relationship (n = 5). Furthermore, the quantitative results showed that the main causes of strike action in Ghanaian public universities include demand for increment in wages and salaries (87.5%), inadequate funding (79%), books and research allowances (82%) and poor working conditions (87.5%). The results of the qualitative study also agreed with these findings. In light of these findings, the study recommends payment of adequate salaries, improvement in working conditions and payment of books and research allowances for lecturers as measures to address strike action in the public universities in Ghana.