The Greater Accra Regional branch of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has given government a one-month ultimatum to implement decisions that were presented in a communiqué after a meeting at the Ministry of Education with other stakeholders.
Addressing a press conference in Accra, the Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the GNAT, Johnny Akpakli, gave the government up to June 20, 2014 to implement the “other decisions contained in the said communiqué; we shall inform our members as to the actions we shall take at the end of June 2014”.
The communiqué was signed by all three teacher unions and other stakeholders on May 15, 2014 after a meeting to resolve issues relating to teachers of the Ghana Education Service.
According to Mr. Akpakli, “there are no timelines on these issues”.
This, they think is a deliberate attempt by the government to delay in addressing the issues in the communiqué.
Issues addressed in the communiqué include: incremental credits where it was recommended that Fair Wages and Salaries Commission should liaise with Controller and Accountant General’s Department to let the Ministry of Finance know the total cost of the incremental credits for 2011 and 2012.
On the payment of not more than three months salary arrears, district directors of education were directed to “submit the completed templates for the payment of the remaining arrears to the Regional Directors latest by 16th May, 2014,” said Mr. Akpakli.
These completed templates were in turn to be submitted to the Ghana Education Service Headquarters by May 22, 2014 while payment was to begin by the end of June 2014.
According to the signed communiqué, “District Directors were also mandated to collate data on transfer grants of qualified beneficiaries by end of May 2014”.
The communiqué further elaborated that “once Ghana Education Service Headquarters receives the data, stakeholders would be invited for a verification and validation exercise for payment to be effected”.
On the second tier occupational Pension Scheme, “the matter was referred to the National Tripartite Committee for consideration”.
In an interview with Citi News, Johnny Akpakli said: “Strikes certainly are one of the weapons that the unions use either to enforce demands or ventilate the grievances of their members. If the language our governments understand is strike and threats of strikes, then they should be prepared for more.”
