The Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG) has given the government up to May 31, 2024, to address their concerns.
The association worries about the government’s reluctance to implement the National Labour Commission’s (NLC) Arbitral Award Orders and some negotiated service conditions.
These demands include compensating each member with one month’s salary for additional duties performed in 2022, among other issues.
The National President of CETAG, Dr. Prince Obeng-Himah, speaking to some journalists on Monday, April 22, 2024, emphasised that failure to address their concerns by May 31 will compel the association to explore alternative actions.
“We would like to send a very strong signal and a message to our employer in unambiguous terms that we shall take our destinies into our own hands if, by 31st May 2024, all the outstanding compulsory arbitration awards as listed below are not fully implemented.
“We wish to call on the FWSC, GTEC, Ministry of Employment and Labour Relation, MoE, and the MoF to immediately comply with the NLC’s compulsory arbitration award orders in the supreme interest of industrial peace.
“We also call on the President of the Republic of Ghana, his excellency Nana Akufo-Addo, the speaker of Parliament of Ghana, the Chief Justice, and the Chairman of the National Peace Council to prevail on the employer to uphold the rule of law by complying with the NLC’s compulsory arbitration award orders issued on 2nd May 2023 to prevent any industrial disturbance,” he stated.
It will be recalled that in 2023, the association embarked on a series of strikes due to the failure of the government to honour thNLC’s’s Arbitral Award Orders and the negotiated conditions.
However, the National Labour Commission (NLC) intervened, directing the government to implement the agreed-upon terms of the conditions of service with the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG).
The Executive Secretary of the commission, Ofosu Asamoah, addressing the media then, emphasized that CETAG should only conclude their strike once they have received official confirmation from the government that their demands have been implemented“
“The commission listened to both parties, the commission realised that the complainant, in this case, the government, has not fully complied with the directives of the commission. So they have been directed to implement fully what thcommission’s’s directives were, as in the payments of the monies that are due them”.