Some staff of the Saint Augustine’s College in Cape Coast in the Central Region have sued the Controller and Accountant General, demanding that rent deductions from their salaries be stopped.
The teachers occupying school bungalows say it’s unfair to be made to pay for their own accommodation.
When they appeared before the Cape Coast High Court, Thursday, the applicants stressed the deductions were illegal.
The Attorney General and the Director General of the Ghana Education Service were also defendants in the case.
Joy News’ Central Regional correspondent Richard Kojo Nyarko who was in court reported that the action has been instituted for and on behalf of resident teachers at the College.
The teachers are seeking five reliefs – chief of which is an order for perpetual injunction restraining the defendants from carrying out any deduction of rent from their salaries.
Counsel for the teachers, Daniel Arthur argued that under a collective agreement reached between the Ghana Education Service (GES) and other Teacher Unions on behalf of all employees of the Service, head teachers, house masters, their assistants and other second cycle teachers shall be provided with free residential accommodation.
Where there is none, the Service shall be responsible for the rent of the teachers concerned.
This also applies for all directors at the district level.
He also said the second section of the agreement stipulates that the teachers shall be entitled to a housing allowance of 35 percent of their basic monthly salaries where the Service is unable to provide the required accommodation for them.
Judge sitting on the case questioned why the issue has not been settled internally but Counsel for the teachers Daniel Arthur insisted that their position is unwarranted in law and the only way to get government to solve the issue was through a court action.
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