Accra, June 23, GNA – Mrs Charlotte Ashiakie Asante, National President of the Ghana School Feeding Programme has announced that the nationwide strike by caterers has been called off.
“We entreat all our caterers to go back to work when school re-opens next week. We apologise to all our beneficiary school children, teachers and parents for any inconveniences caused by our long strike, which was beyond our control.”
Mrs Asante was addressing the media to update them on the progress of their issues.
She said: “however, we as Caterers of Ghana School Feeding Programme we still stand by our earlier demand for three Ghana cedis increment. It is our demand that the Government would facilitate the necessary processes to still increase the amount from the proposed GHS.1.20 to GHS 3.00, considering the prevailing cost of items on the market.”
Mrs Asante reminded caterers in all the 16 regions that the Ghana School Feeding Prgramme had only one Caterers’ Association recognized by the sector Ministry and the National Secretariat.
“Therefore, we must have one voice and one common goal of making Ghana School Feeding Programme better and more attractive for all of us. “
“The National Executive would like to strongly admonish all caterers to henceforth desist from spreading falsehood and using the Media for wrong purposes or as a tool to denigrate the Programme, instead of using dialogue and the acceptable rules of engagement,” she added.
The President of the School Feeding Caterers’ Association appealed to the Gender Minister to implement her planned nationwide engagement with the caterers in the various regions so that the challenges could be addressed on time.
Caterers in the 260 districts of Ghana went on a nationwide strike in which they laid down their cooking pots to drum home our demand for early payment of their arrears and increment in the amount voted per each child per day.
The strike aimed at demanding for better conditions of service as caterers, who are feeding over 3.8 million children from deprived public basic schools in Ghana.
Mrs Asante said the Minister of Gender, Ms Lariba Zuweira Abudu had assured that the caterers third term of 2022 payment would be paid within a week, and monies had been paid since last two week.
In all, 11,052 Caterers were assessed and processed for payment for the third term of 2022 academic year. The payment covered 67 cooking days and 76 caterers still have their payment pending due to some challenges with their e-zwich cards.
GNA