By Gifty Amofa, GNA
Accra, Dec. 10, GNA
– The National Labour Commission (NLC), Tuesday, urged the leadership of the striking
Ghana Education Service (GES) unions to direct their members to immediately
resume work because they failed to follow the due process in declaring the
nationwide action.
The Executive
Secretary, Mr Ofosu Asamoah, who was speaking in an interview with the Ghana
News Agency, in Accra, said should this fail; its Legal Department would
enforce the Labour Law to ensure their return to work.
He said the Unions
contravened the provisions of the Labour Act (Section 159), which mandated a
party in a dispute under arbitration to serve a written notice to the other
party and the Labour Commission before it embarks on a strike or a lock
out.
The Ghana National
Association of Teachers (GNAT); National Association of Graduate Teachers
(NAGRAT); and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers Association (CCTA) called the
indefinite strike, effective Monday, December 9, to back home their demand for
the payment of the legacy arrears to all of its beneficiary members.
The legacy arrears
relates to unpaid salary arrears from 2012 to 2016, which originally affected
120,232 teachers.
But the GES has said
as at end of September 2019, it had paid 87,556 beneficiaries, whose claims it
had vetted and approved.
It was still,
however, in the process of cleaning up some anomalies it detected in the rest,
in addition to those of an additional set of data covering 1,847 beneficiaries, which was submitted to
it by the Internal audit Department
of the Controller and
Accountant-General’s Department on
November 9, 2019.
The GES said it was
working to clear the arrears by the Christmas break.
But the Unions said
the affected members were not to blame for the anomalies, and should,
therefore, be paid immediately, as they had waited for too long and their
patience had run out.
They would,
therefore, not return to the classrooms until the last of the beneficiaries had
been paid.
Meanwhile, the NLC
in a statement issued, and signed by its chairman, Mr Andy Kwabena Asamoah, and
copied to the Ghana News Agency, stated that: “The National Association of
Graduate Teachers; Ghana National Association of Teachers; and the Coalition of
Concerned Teachers failed to notify the NLC and its employer of the ongoing
nationwide strike in contravention of section 159 of the Labour Act 2003, Act
651.
“That, the
Commission in exercise of the authority conferred on it by Section 139 (1) (b)
of Act 651, finds the Associations’ action in violation of Act 651 and,
therefore, the ongoing strike of the unions is illegal.
“That the teacher
unions call of the strike immediately and return to work”.
The NLC said it met
with the representatives of the GES, Ministry of Education and the Fair Wages
and Salaries Commission on the matter, on Tuesday, December 10.
However, the
leadership of the Unions were absent at the meeting.
The GNA learnt that
the Commission was informed by a letter that all the executives of the Unions
were all out of the jurisdiction.
The GES reported the
Unions to the Commission, the GNA learnt yesterday.
The Unions also
reportedly failed to attend a meeting with the Minister of Employment and
Labour Relations; and representatives of the Finance Ministry and the
Controller and Accountant General’s Department.
The meeting was
supposed to be a follow up to one held by the parties on Monday, which ended
inconclusively.
The GES last met the
Unions on the matter on Monday, December
2, at which it gave it a December 5, deadline to clear the arrears of
those unaffected by the anomalies.
The GES, however,
said it made it clear then that position was unrealistic.
It has explained
that: “A close examination of the data indicated the following anomalies, which
would have led to an excess payment of about GH¢11,300,376.00.
“Some of the
personnel were to be paid undeserved ranks.
Some of the names
had no personal records on the GES payroll from 2012 2014 to establish that
they could be owed arrears over that period
“Some of the listed
personnel were not owed any salary arrears and yet had been credited with huge
sums of money and in some case up to GHS58,000.00.
“Some female
personnel were to be paid night watchmen allowances when they have never been
night watchmen with the GES.
“Some staff who were
owed by six months have been credited for only two months.”
Meanwhile, students
of pre-tertiary schools have been stranded by the action, especially those who
have been scheduled to write their End of Term exams this week and Form Three
Junior High school Students preparing for their Basic Education School
Certificate Examination.
GNA
