By Jesse Ampah Owusu
Accra, Aug. 03, GNA – The National Labour Commission (NLC) has directed the College of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG) to call off its strike and appear before the Commission for a hearing.
This is after the leadership of the Association failed to appear before the NLC on Wednesday, August 02, 2023, for a hearing on their industrial action.
The NLC also directed CETAG to appear before the Commission next Wednesday, August 09, 2023.
The Commission stressed that CETAG needed to call off its industrial action as engagements were being held.
According to the NLC, the leadership of CETAG before the day of hearing by the NLC, wrote to the Commission that it did not have any issue with it (NLC), thus would not appear before it.
The Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana commenced an indefinite industrial action on August 1, 2023, over government’s failure to implement “negotiated” conditions of service for its members.
In 2021, CETAG and the Government through the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) engaged in protracted negotiations over a new condition of service for members of CETAG.
This compelled the National Labour Commission (NLC) to intervene with a Compulsory Arbitration following CETAG’s strike in January 2023.
At the end of the Compulsory Arbitration, the NLC issued an Arbitral Award Order on May 2, 2023, granting CETAG members a new condition of service with effect from January 1, 2023.
The Association indicated that following the NLC’s Compulsory Arbitral Award, the parties proceeded to sign off the negotiation agreement, which had been communicated to the Ministry of Finance (MoF) by FWSC since May 26, 2023, for approval and implementation.
They claimed that the MoF had refused to act on the FWSC’s letter together with the NLC’s Arbitral Orders despite letters written to the Ministry requesting the immediate implementation of the negotiated agreement.
Members of the Association, therefore, decided to withdraw their services from all 46 Colleges of Education if government failed to honour the terms of negotiations agreed upon by Monday, July 31, 2023.
GNA