The Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG) is gearing up to embark on industrial action.
The Association expressed frustration over the government’s delay in implementing the National Labour Commission’s (NLC) Arbitral Award Orders and the negotiated service conditions.
Among their demands is compensation for each member equivalent to one month’s salary for additional duties performed in 2022, among other concerns.
In a letter to the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), CETAG highlighted the NLC’s reluctance “to trigger Section 172 of the Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651) to compel our Employer to comply with the orders and directives issued on May 2, 2023, and August 31, 2023, despite the union complying with the Commission’s directive to call off our strike in August 2023.”
CETAG also accused the FWSC and the Ministry of Education of deliberately refusing “to pay the deserving members of CETAG a top-up of research allowance as arrears from the 2023 Conditions of Service (CoS) Agreement.
This agreement, signed with the FWSC and approved by the Ministry of Finance in July 2023, has an ending date of December 31, 2024.”
On September 5, 2023, CETAG suspended their initial strike action.
Prince Obeng-Himah in an interview on JoyNews’ AM Show, on that day, explained that “it follows the directives given by the National Labour Commission last Wednesday, asking us to call off the action.”
Mr Obeng-Himah further disclosed that CETAG complied with the NLC’s directives because they had been assured that the NLC “had compelled the government to provide evidence of a full compliance: bringing timelines or providing them with timelines when those that are yet to comply be complied.”
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