The College of Education Teachers’ Association of Ghana (CETAG) has served notice that it will resume its strike on January 6, 2023.
CETAG in a release dated January 5, 2023, explained that the resumption of the strike is imminent as the stakeholders have not attached the needed seriousness to their concerns regarding Conditions of Service for over two years now.
“Following a meeting held between the Government Team and CETAG on 4th January 2023 over the outstanding issues of CETAG, the National Council of CETAG met to evaluate what transpired and concluded that the strike action which was suspended on 17th December 2022 shall resume on Friday, January 6, 2023, if the two days grace period given to the Minister expires without a resolution of the outstanding issues,” portions of the statement read.
According to them, “all the outstanding issues contained in the communiqué signed on 16th December 2022 which the Minister promised to resolve within two weeks after the suspension of the strike, remain unresolved to date.”
CETAG also stated that the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) never took any steps to seek a financial mandate from the Finance Ministry for the three outstanding generic allowances as promised.
It further rejected the January 2023 effective date for CETAG’s 2021 Conditions of Service which the parties settled on at the beginning of the negotiations in August 2021.
“The effective date of January 2023 which the Government Team wants to unilaterally impose on CETAG instead of the mutually agreed effective date of January 2022 is totally unacceptable,” they added.
According to CETAG, they can no longer trust the assurances given by the stakeholders to seek a further financial mandate for the three outstanding generic allowances since all previous assurances were never fulfilled.
They added that “GTEC has failed to disclose to CETAG the amount it has proposed to be paid as all-year-round work compensation as well as the time the payment shall be made.”
It would be recalled that on December 17, 2022, CETAG called off its five-week industrial action over its conditions of service.
This follows a majority vote by the local branches under the Association to call off their strike premised on an assurance by the Education Minister to resolve their concerns within two weeks after suspension.
Out of the 35 colleges that voted online, 19 of them, forming the majority, agreed to suspend the strike but would resume if their outstanding issues are not resolved as promised.