The Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT), has declared their intention to petition the Supreme Court over the Ministry of Finance’s failure to pay its members their salary arrears in the last two years.
Two other teacher unions, the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), and the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), are also putting pressure on the Finance Ministry to pay their accumulated allowances.
[contextly_sidebar id=”9BoPT0tZrbdCxoQ249hOBaHDnWFgFmCM”]The Unions have already declared their intention to lay down their tools.
The unions are demanding the payment of the arrears of the 2013 and 2014 batches of newly recruited teachers, allowances for teachers on promotion and others who were reinstated or re-engaged, and also the outstanding transfer grants and allowances for deserving teachers.
The Vice President of NAGRAT, Angel Carbonu, also told Citi News they signed an agreement with government in November 2015 to have their arrears fast-tracked, but government has violated the agreement.
CCT to strike in two weeks
Addressing the press in Accra on Wednesday, the Vice President of the CCT, King Ali Awudu indicated that if they are not paid within two weeks, they will embark on an indefinite strike.
“If within two weeks, all salary arrears, vehicle maintenance allowance, incremental credit arrears and transfer grants are not paid, then we declare that all teachers should stay out of the classroom in a massive strike to press home our demands.”
Supreme Court action
Mr. King Ali Awudu says they are contemplating a possible court action against the state, to seek for interpretation of the law at the Supreme Court on the payment of salaries to public sector workers.
“We are seeking an interpretation to Article 24 (1) of the 1992 constitution, if the state or government has the right to employ and not pay these employee. Nevertheless, if by the end of this month, we do not see any assurances of the payment of our monies and all the issues we have raised are not addressed, then an indefinite strike has been declared in advance.”
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Kojo Agyeman/citifmonline.com/Ghana