The Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG), is threatening to embark on strike on Thursday November 2, 2017, if government fails to pay salary arrears owed it members since October 2016.
CETAG lamented that despite a directive by the National Labour Commission (NLC), asking the Ministry of Finance to pay the arrears within two weeks, it is yet to be paid.
Speaking in a Citi News interview, the National Secretary of CETAG, Prince Obeng-Himah, said the Ministries of Finance and Education have not been fair to them.
[contextly_sidebar id=”38NhzguTjnJvuscrAgcYRDg7nHoUYYzI”]“We forwarded our particulars after the new minister came into office through the Ministry of Finance to the Ministry of Education, and the responses we were getting weren’t satisfactory. So we wanting to be law abiding appealed to the National Labour Commission to intervene. After months of appearance and hearing, the NLC came out with a ruling on 4th of October.”
“The ruling was very clear and unequivocal, and stated that the people should liaise with one another – the Ministries of Finance and Education – and effect payments of the arrears to the teachers within two weeks. Up to this time, they are yet to comply. And we think that is unfair,” he said.
Obeng-Himah lamented that, supposing the NLC’s ruling had gone against CETAG, members of the group couldn’t have defied it, hence government must give reasons why it has failed to adhere to the directive.
“Supposing that the ruling had gone against us as a union that we should for instance go back to the classroom to work, we couldn’t have stayed home from 4th to this time without complying. We are saying that the ruling said all those processes ought to have gone on within two weeks leading to the payments of the salary arrears. So we did not find the explanation they gave us as satisfactory,” CETAG’s National Secretary added.
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By: Godwin A. Allotey & Marie-Franz Fordjoe/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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