Senior Staff Association (SSA) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has held its 9th biennial conference with a call on members to reposition themselves to surmount post-COVID-19 challenges.
Delegates from all the Institutes under the CSIR across the country attended the two-day conference, which was on the theme: “Strategies to Sustain and Strengthen Science and Technology Research– the Role of CSIR.”
The conference sought to take stock of the activities of the Association and strategise the way forward with emphasis on the welfare and collective development of members.
Mr Fred Kwame Tekpor, National President of the Association, said the past one and half years had been a challenging one for CSIR and the SSA, in particular, due to the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This, he said, informed the selection of the theme for the conference to remind members of the need to pursue strategies that could sustain the science and technology research which was the core mandate of CSIR.
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He said CSIR could not adequately accomplish its purpose without the active engagement and participation of the senior staff and called on management to formulate policies that allowed SSA members to play their unique roles as middle-level staff with respect and dignity.
He acknowledged the tremendous support that management continued to provide the Association in terms of their welfare, career development and other opportunities.
“I will urge management to continue to ensure that issues affecting members interest, welfare, promotion and safety are handled with the urgency it deserves,” he emphasised.
Mr Tekpor was of the strong conviction that the cooperation between management and the SSA would further strengthen the cordial working relationship among the staff of the CSIR.
Prof. Victor Kwame Agyemang, the Director-General of CSIR, paid glowing tribute to SSA for its contribution to the overall output of CSIR over the years.
The Director-General said he had enjoyed a cordial working relationship with the Association, which formed about 47 per cent of the workforce of CSIR.
He charged staff of all the institutes of CSIR to resist private developers encroachment on the organisation’s lands, saying that it was in their collective interest to protect the lands as workers of CSIR.
Dr Agyeman reminded them that encroachment on the lands of one institute must be a concern for all the other institutes because all staff would suffer the consequences of inaction on the part of a particular institute.
