Three pre-tertiary teachers’ unions, the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT) are protesting their conditions of service and threatening to engage in yet another strike action.
The Unions highlighted the lack of significant progress in their negotiations with the government and indicated that the government’s team appears to be ill-equipped to adequately respond to their demand.
While the union members warned the government of further disruption in teaching and learning at the pre-tertiary level, they urged the public not to blame the various teacher unions for the consequences of such a situation, emphasizing the need for the government to address their demands.
Rev. Isaac Owusu, President of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), indicated that following the directive of the National Labor Commission (NLC), the Unions were present to have a negotiation with the government on Wednesday, 17th April 2024.
He, however, revealed that the representatives of the government who were supposed to sit at the negotiation with Unions failed to be present at the meeting, indicating that the GNAT had duly informed the National Labor Commission (NLC) of the development.
“They [the NLC] urged us to give them the next two weeks and the government side assured the commissioners that within these two weeks, they will come clean so that we will be able to finish the negotiation and report back to the commissioners on the 2nd of May, 2024”.
Rev. Isaac Owusu
Rev. Owusu noted that the teachers’ Unions are demanding from the government, the renewal of the Collective Agreement, the Scheme of Service for the pre-tertiary educational level, and the distribution of laptops for teachers for which teachers were charged.
He noted that while there are other issues to be discussed on the negotiation table, the aforementioned ones are the most important to the various unions, indicating that the outcome of the negotiation will not hold if these demands are not met.
NLC’s Role In Negotiation
Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary of the NLC, Mr. Ofosu Asamoah, indicated that though the Commission is aware of the failure of the government’s representatives to be present at the negotiation, it does not know the negotiation was stalled.
He noted that both parties reported to the commission about their inability to come to a decision concerning the issue at hand and asked for a two-week extended date which the Commission granted them.
“I don’t think anything is stalling the settlement. Initially, there was a complaint of the dragging of feet by the government party. However, when they appeared before the Commission, they said they had been able to hold four successful meetings”.
Mr. Ofosu Asamoah
He stated that the Finance Minister, who was supposed to give the government party the mandate to go ahead with the previous day’s negotiation was unavailable hence the absence of the government party in the negotiation.
Mr. Asamoah noted that the sole role of the NLC in the negotiation process is to encourage both parties involved to negotiate in good faith so that a resolution can be reached quickly. He urged both parties to be committed to whatever decisions they will make during the negotiations.
“Because if they negotiate and come out with something that they are not committed to its implementation, we will go back and forth with the same problem”. – Mr. Asamoah.
He however noted that should both parties fail to reach an agreement, the NLC will have to settle the issue using its discretion as the issue concerns education which is very important to the country’s development.
Moreover, the President of GNAT, Rev. Isaac Owusu stated that as the Unions return to the negotiation table with the government, the expectation is that the government cooperates with the Unions to reach an agreement quickly enough.
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