The National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) has called off its intended strike action over unpaid allowances.
The decision was arrived at following a meeting with officials of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), the employment as well as Finance Ministry.
The teachers had threatened to strike if government failed to pay them their transfer and transportation allowances, which have been in arrears for some months now.
[contextly_sidebar id=”0g354NoFRyWPaciPQIEl47lWES0baeiW”]The various parties me on Monday and started a process to identify affected teachers across the country.
Wednesday’s meeting, which was to follow up on the progress made by the teacher unions in its negotiations with their employers ended in a withdrawal of the decision of NAGRAT.
Announcing the decision, the Vice president of NAGRAT, Angel Carbonu expressed gratitude to the various stakeholders for their commitment in helping to solve the concerns of teachers.
“NAGRAT believes that if all stakeholders adhere to the tenets of the agreements that we’ve reached there will be no threats and the labour atmosphere will be congenial and peaceful,” he said.
“Having accepted the conditions that we set for ourselves and the road map that we’ve agreed to work with, NAGRAT has decided to call off the intended strike,” Mr. Carbonu added.
On his part, the Chief Executive of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission(FWSC), George Smith Graham said money has been released for the payment of some of the allowances being demanded by the teachers,
“We have realized that on the issue of the transfer grant and the vehicle maintenance allowance money has already been released to the Ghana Education Service(GES) for onward payment,” he said.
Conditions of service
The Chief Executive of the FWSC also indicated his outfit together with other relevant stakeholders would discuss on the conditions of service of the teachers, upon receipt of the appropriate documents.
“We have received the documents on the conditions of service that we requested from the teacher unions. The FWSC will put up a team involving the employment ministry, teachers and the GES especially now that the categories 2 and 3 allowances have been negotiated.”
Unvalidated teachers
Mr. Graham described this as a major issue to the teacher unions. He also indicated that the audit service has so far validated about 5000 teachers after it emerged that about 15,000 teachers had not been validated.
Meanwhile the FWSC has outlined mechanisms to address the issue of the unvalidated teachers going ahead.
“We are going to issue press releases for teachers to submit the list of unvalidated teachers GES headquarters by October 23. Notices to be sent by GES and teacher unions will also follow this. The GES has already informed all regional directors to facilitate the process.
Caution
Meanwhile Mr. Graham has revealed that teachers who fail to heed to the deadline will have their names scrapped off the payroll.
“If by the deadline anyone who refuses to submit the data to the headquarters for onward submission to the audit service for validation will have the name blocked on the payroll,” he stated.
–
By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citifmonline.com/Ghana