The Teachers and Educational Workers’ Union (TEWU) has intimated that the Union will resume its strike action if it is not satisfied with the outcome of the negotiations which led to the suspension of the strike action.
Addressing the issue, the General Secretary of TEWU, Mark Korankye, averred that the Union suspended its nationwide strike because the committee which has been set up to address the demands of the Union has begun the negotiation process with the government.
The committee, he indicated, is made up of officials of the Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations, Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service (GES).
“Depending on the outcome of the committee’s work, we’ll either resume the strike if we’re not satisfied or call off the strike if we’re satisfied.”
Mark Korankye
The General Secretary of TEWU noted that the Union suspended its strike because the labor laws and the Labor Act do not permit them to negotiate while on industrial strike.
According to him, government agreed that there’s the need to pay the allowances but the details of it must be worked out by a committee. The committee, according to Mr. Korankye, will work and represent a recommendation for government’s approval.
Due to this, he disclosed that a seven-member committee has been formed which comprises four members from the government and three members from the union.
“So, the committee we thought, should start their work immediately but they cannot start work and engage the union when the union is on strike, the labour law frowns on that. So, for us to get the committee to start work immediately, we agreed that we’ll suspend our strike and allow the committee to finish its work.”
Mark Korankye
Mr. Korankye’s comments followed the Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations announcement that the leadership of Teachers and Education Workers Union (TEWU) has agreed to suspend its strike for negotiations to resume.
Deputy Minister of Employment and Labor Relations, Bright Wireko Brobbey, who disclosed this stated that the decision was arrived at after a meeting was held between the leadership of TEWU, the Ministry of Employment of Labor Relations, the Ghana Education Service(GES) and the Ministry of Education.
CETAG Commences strike
Meanwhile, the College of Education Teachers’ Association of Ghana (CETAG) has commenced an indefinite strike across all the 46 Ghanaian public Colleges of Education today, Thursday, 6 January 2022.
A statement released by CETAG stated that in an emergency National Council meeting of the College of Education Teachers’ Association of Ghana (CETAG), the National Council unanimously agreed to embark on an indefinite strike across all the 46 Ghanaian public Colleges of Education effective Thursday, 6th January 2022.
The statement added that CETAG’s National Council has resolved to follow through with its decision to withdraw teaching duties.
The indefinite industrial action according to the Association is grounded on CETAG and Government signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on September 24, 2021, after reaching agreements on 2017-2020 Conditions of Service (CoS) for members of the Association.
CETAG, prior to this announcement, had expressed its readiness to embark on strike in December 2021. The Association had lamented government’s failure to pay their allowances for the year 2021.
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