President of the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana(CETAG), Prince Obeng-Himah has stated that their negotiations with the government over the ongoing strike have made no major progress despite receiving assurances.
According to him, the National Labour Commission (NLC) met with the executives of CETAG on Wednesday, August 2, 2023, to resolve the impasse, however, nothing fruitful came out of the meeting as both parties failed to arrive on the same page.
In an interview with JoyNews which GhanaWeb monitored, on Saturday, August 2, 2023, Prince Obeng-Himah indicated the government has given them assurances of resolving the impasse but there has been no agreement with the National Labour Commission(NLC) with respect to their demands.
“I think we have been receiving calls and assurances from the government directly. The National Labour Commission attempted to be part of a meeting last Wednesday and in their letter they wanted to resolve the impasse. We responded to the letter in writing saying that there isn't any issue to be resolved.
“What needs to be done for the government of the commission and in doing so we did not need to be part of that could go to the High Court to get superior to compel the government if they felt the government was in compliance with the provisions by the NLC.”
He added that “The order required the government to do a lot of things, including the agreed conditions of service that the National Labour Commission has referred through the Commodity Application and then they were also ordered to pay one month's salary to all the teachers for having been part of all year-round teachers in 22.
“They also compare the tutor they needed in the face of the law to agree on how each one of them would take 15 days leave to be able to rest and then be full of energy to be able to work and all these things have not been done now,” he revealed.
The president of CETAG commended the members of the 46 colleges of education for their cooperation and assured them that they will remain steadfast in their quest to improve the conditions of its members.
“It's unfortunate we have had to get to where we are at the moment and the impact of the strike is very bitter. We have checked across the 46 public colleges of education our members have complied fully and they deserve every commendation for that,” he said.
On August 1, 2023, the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana(CETAG) embarked on strike following the Non-compliance by the government to implement the National Labour Commission’s (NLC) arbitral award orders and the negotiated conditions of service since May 2, 2023.
The teachers of the 46 public colleges of education embarked on an indefinite strike after the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission protracted negotiations for new conditions of service for more than one year.
However, the agreed negotiations between both parties have since not been granted despite several notices to the Ministry of Finance.
The Association blames the ministry for intentionally prolonging the implementation of the agreements hence the declaration of strike this time around.
BS/DA
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President of the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana, Prince Obeng-Himah