General News of Saturday, 14 December 2019
Source: primenewsghana.com
2019-12-14
According to a lecturer, the only way to gain government’s attention is resorting to illegal strikes
A lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr Kwame Asah-Asante, has backed the action of the teacher unions to embark on a strike even though it was deemed illegal.
According to Dr. Asah-Asante that is the only way to get the government to respond to the needs of the citizens so it has become a norm for institutions to resort to illegal strikes even though that is not the right path.
The Ghana Education Service (GES) said the industrial action declared by the teachers is illegal and ‘grossly an abuse of the principle of good faith and good working relations”.
“The point is that the employer who is supposed to prepare the data for them to pay us didn’t do the work. I admit the strike by the teachers was illegal but in this country, we use the illegal strike to get things done,” he spoke on Joy FM’s NewsFile on December 13, 2019.
“There was even a notion that the government was only ready to sit us down and properly listen to our case when we embark on a strike”.
The National Labour Commission (NLC) in a statement on December 13, 2019, also described the teacher Union strike as illegal.
The Chairperson for the Commission, Andy Kwabena Asamoah, said the ongoing nationwide strike was in contravention of section 159 of the Labour Act 2003 and Act 651.
However, the three Teacher Unions have called off their strike action following a court injunction secured against their move by the National Labour Commission.
The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT) on December 5, 2019, declared a strike after a series of failed engagements with the government on Legacy Arrears incurred between 2012 and 2016.
