The Colleges of Education, Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG) have urged President Akufo Addo, Speaker of Parliament, Chief Justice and Peace Council of Ghana to prevail on their Employer to uphold the rule of law by complying with NLC’s Compulsory Arbitration Award orders issued on 2″ May 2023.
This was to prevent any industrial disturbances in the 46 public colleges of education this academic year.
They further called on the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (GTI-C), the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations (MELR), the Ministry of Education (MoE) and the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to imediately comply with the NLC’s Compulsory Arbitration Award orders in the supreme interest of industrial peace.
This was made known at a press conference presented by Mr. Prince Being-Himah, President of CETAG, to make known to the general public the plight as teachers of the 46 public colleges of education in Ghana.
COLLEGES OF EDUCATION TEACHERS ASSOCIATION OF GHANA (CETAG) DEMANDS FOR IMMEDIATE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NATIONAL LABOUR COMMISSION’S (NLC) COMPULSORY ARBITRATION AWARDS BY THE EMPLOYER:
A PRESS CONFERENCE ADDRESSED BY THE PRESIDENT OF CETAG, MR. PRINCE OBENG-HIMAH ON MONDAY, 22ND APRIL 2024 IN ACCRA
Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media. We welcome you to this important press conference of CETAG in Accra College of Education to make known to you and the Ghanaian public our plight as teachers of the 46 public colleges of education in Ghana.
It will be recalled that in August 2023, CETAG members embarked on an indefinite strike action over our employer’s failure to comply with the NLC’s Compulsory Arbitration Award issued on 2″ May 2023 ina matter filed by Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC).
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press, may I crave your indulgence to refer you to the awards made by the Panel of Arbitrators of the NLC on 24 May 2023, for the avoidance of doubt. The outstanding NLC Compulsory Arbitration awards which our employer has deliberately refused to comply with their implementation are as follows:
e An ORDER for the payment of one month salary based on the respondent’s (CETAG’s) proposed salary grade shall be paid to each of its entitled members as compensation for additional duty performed in the year 2022.
. The Complainant (FWSC) is DIRECTED as the chief negotiator for the Employer to ensure that GTEC will expedite and conclude the ongoing staff audit for the Respondent (CETAG), on or before 31st July, 2023.
. An ORDER that the agreed rates payable to pubtic universities shall be applied to deserving members of the Respondent (CETAG).
. An ORDER that the implementation of the completed staff audit exercise shall commerce 1st January, 2023. (Find attached the full NLC Compulsory Arbitration Award for your study and reference)
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press, it will interest you to know that our Employer as of today Monday, 22″4 April 2024 has not complied with the orders of the NLC even though a Compulsery Arbitration Award issued by the NLC is binding per section 164 (4) of the Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651). On 31st August 2023, the NLC issued further directives to our Employer to comply with the awards by 30th September 2023 but again the
Employer never respected the directives of the Commission.
Again, on 10 October 2023, CETAG wrote to the NLC to complain about the non compliance of the Employer and requested the Commission to make an application to the High Court for an order to compel the Employer to comply with the Compulsory Arbitration orders per section 172 of the Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651). The Commission merely wrote to CETAG to say that it had referred the matter to its legal team to act on without any further action to date. Since then, CETAG has written several reminders to the NLC and copied her all letters sent to our Employer asking for immediate implementation of the Compulsory Arbitration awards but the Commission is yet to take appropriate legal action against our Employer.
In another development, ladies and gentlemen of the press, you will recall that CETAG members’ August 2023 salaries were frozen by the Minister for Education just because we embarked on a legal strike to demand for what is legitimately ours per the NLC’s Compulsory Arbitration awards issued on 2″ May 2023 which the Employer has failed to comply with. The salary freeze was used by the Employer to unjustly intimidate and frustrate CEETAG members for demanding what is legitimately ours. Notwithstanding the good gesture of CETAG members to call offour August 2023 strike action after the NLC intervened and appealed to us to do so in the interest of the state, the Employer has still not restored the August 2023 frozen salaries of some of our members inchiding my humble self, the President of the union till date,
In the wake of all these intimidations, we as teacher educators continue to work selflessly for the country. Currently, our members who hold qualifications comparable to colleagues in the public universities have not been extended the same rates of remuneration and allowances as ordered by NLC on 2™ May 2023. The college teacher is not properly recognised by the Employer and the state though we are the professionals who are training the next generation of teachers with 21 Century skills and competencies which will lead to the transformation of the educational landscape in this country, We want to say that teaching in the colleges of education is nota crime and no authority or person should seck to criminalize or scandalise our sacrifices as teacher educators.
Ladies and gentlemen of the press, the plight of CETAG members continues to deepen day by day as the stakeholders who are supposed to act on our legitimate issues have neglected their duties up to date for reasons known to them. In a recent virtual engagement with FWSC, GTEC and PRINCOF officials, it came to light that GTEC was yet to serve FWSC a copy of the staff audit report which was completed in September 2023 in violation of the NLC’s directive to them on 31‘ August 2023. What is even more unacceptable is that at the said virtual engagement, GTEC claimed that it had written to FWSC for a meeting to discuss some grey areas in the report before it could be implemented which letter the FWSC denied knowledge of. Also, the PRINCOF representative at the meeting disclosed that PRINCOF had sent data on the all-year-round work compensation to GTEC twice which GTEC said it could not be traced. Such disclosures by officials of the Employer make it imperative that they do not have the concerns of CETAG members at heart. It is also worth noting that as part of the implementation of the Compulsory Arbitration awards, our Employer was to pay a top-up for research allowance for the 2022/2023 academic year to deserving members but to date GTEC has tailed to ensure that the allowances are paid.
From the foregoing developments, it is now very clear to CETAG members that our Employer is deliberately denying us our legitimate Compulsory Arbitration awards without any reasonable justification. At this juncture, we would like to send a strong signal and message to our Employer that we shall take our destinies into our own handsi 6 31° Ma 2024 all the outstandin’ Com:ulsor Arbitration awards as listed below are not fully implemented.
1. An ORDER that payment of one month salary based on the respondent’s (CETAG’s) proposed salary grade shall be paid to each of its entitled members as compensation for additional duty performed in the year 2022.
2. An ORDER that the agreed rates payable to public universities shall be applied to deserving members of the Respondent (CETAG).
3. An ORDER that the implementation of the completed staff audit exercise shall commerce 1st January, 2023.
In conclusion, we wish to call on the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTI-C), the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations (MELR), the Ministry of Education (MoE) and the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to imediately comply with the NLC’s Compulsory Arbitration Award orders in the supreme interest of industrial peace. We also call on the President of the Republic of Ghana, the Speaker of Parliament of Ghana, the Chief Justice and the Chairman of the National Peace Council to prevail on our Employer to uphold the rule of law by complying with NLC’s Compulsory Arbitration Award orders issued on 2″ May 2023 to prevent any industrial disturbances in the 46 public colleges of education this academic year. Thank you.
Dated: 22″4 day of April, 2024
