The government says the allowances for teachers from the various Colleges of Education, who went on strike, will be paid within two weeks.
This follows the refusal of members of the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG) to call off their prolonged industrial action.
Despite a court ruling declaring the strike illegal, the teachers have not returned to work. Consequently, salaries for those who did not work in July have been frozen.
Speaking to JoyNews, the Director for Tertiary Education at the Ministry of Education, Professor Francis Nunoo stated that teachers have eight days to resume their duties or risk forfeiting their July salaries.
He insists that efforts are being made to settle the outstanding allowances.
“We are fact-checking them and based on the availability of national funds, it will hit their account. All the necessary paper works, everything is being worked on. The payment system has been done. All that is left is for the money to hit people’s accounts and we are looking at the situation of maximum two-weeks for it to hit their accounts”.
Meanwhile, the teachers are expected to meet with government and Parliament in separate meetings to end the impasse.
Professor Francis Nunoo told JoyNews’ Evans Mensah that he is hopeful the meetings will be fruitful.
“We have attendance list of those who are working. Those people will be exempted but those who have not worked all through the period may be affected. But we hope it wouldn’t get to that far. On Wednesday, we are engaging with them. The Minister for Education, Dr Osei Yaw Adutwum has called the various government stakeholders to sit at a table and we hope this will be the last time for us to solve the problem so that we don’t have to freeze their salaries.”
But the National Labour Commission (NLC) says GTEC did no wrong in freezing the salaries of the teachers.
Speaking on JoyNews, Executive Secretary of the Commission, Ofosu Asamoah insisted that the ongoing strike is illegal.
“This is like two elephants fighting and I feel so sad about it. The court has injuncted the strike, yet they are continuing with the strike. With that, it makes the strike illegal because the court says ‘this strike is not right, so stop’.
“When it becomes an illegal strike, the law provides that they should not be paid for the period they engaged in the illegal strike,” he explained.
Striking CETAG members withdraw all services as government withholds salaries
Leadership of the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG) has called on members to withdraw all services following the decision by government to freeze their July salary.
These services, according to a statement sighted by JoyNews, include attendance of meetings and congregation ceremonies, provision of academic counselling as well as supervision of students in their halls of residence.
Read also: Allowances of striking CETAG members to be paid in 2 weeks as salaries remain on hold
CETAG explained that the decision is in response to the Minister of Education’s directive to Principals and the Controller and Accountant General not to validate the July 2024 salaries of teaching staff of the 46 public colleges of education due to their ongoing strike.
“Leadership has referred the illegal directive to freeze our July salaries to our lawyers to take the necessary action on it immediately,” the statement dated July 23 added.
Meanwhile, the National Labour Commission (NLC) has backed the decision by Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) to freeze the salaries of the teachers.
Speaking on JoyNews, Executive Secretary of the Commission, Ofosu Asamoah insisted that the ongoing strike is illegal.
“This is like two elephants fighting and I feel so sad about it. The court has injuncted the strike, yet they are continuing with the strike. With that, it makes the strike illegal because the court says ‘this strike is not right, so stop’.
“When it becomes an illegal strike, the law provides that they should not be paid for the period they engaged in the illegal strike,” he explained.
Read also: GTEC directs CAGD to withhold CETAG members’ July salaries
Currently, the strike has affected all 46 public colleges of education nationwide.
According to the leadership of CETAG, the strike is to demand better working conditions and remuneration packages.
CETAG’s demands include the payment of one month’s salary to each member for additional duties performed in 2022, and the application of agreed rates of allowances payable to public universities to deserving CETAG members.
Due to this strike, the academic calendar has been interrupted and students are waiting anxiously for the resumption of classes.
Source; Myjoyonline.com
