Colleges of Education teachers embark on sit-down strike, but ministry says it’s illegal
The Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG) yesterday began a sit-down strike in protest against what they described as poor conditions of service.
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It contended that ever since the colleges were upgraded to tertiary status, its members’ conditions of service had not been reviewed, despite several pleas to the Ministry of Education.
Ministry reacts
But the Ministry of Education has described the strike by CETAG as illegal and appealed to it to call it off.
According to the ministry, the reasons for which CETAG had embarked on the strike were being addressed by the ministry.
In an interview, the Public Relations Officer of the ministry, Mr Paul Kofi Krampa, explained that CETAG had earlier sent a petition to the National Labour Commission (NLC) to summon the ministry.
“However, when both parties were to appear before the commission last Wednesday, CETAG never showed up and we were asked to produce our evidence, and based on what we presented, the NLC ruled in our favour. The CETAG does not have a case because the ministry is already addressing those concerns,” he told the Daily Graphic.
He said the NLC had summoned both parties to appear before it again tomorrow Wednesday, January 22, to find an amicable solution.
Upgrading
Explaining the upgrading of the colleges of education to tertiary institutions, Mr Krampa said CETAG was part of the harmonisation exercise of the status, conditions of service and scheme of work of its members “and this requires diligent and gradual work. We cannot afford to rush and in the end make mistakes”.
He said all those were explained, adding that the conditions of service, for instance, were supposed to be addressed by the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, since the ministry did not have the mandate to deal with those things.
Mr Krampa said after all that explanation, CETAG still demanded that while waiting for the harmonisation exercise to end, its members should be paid an additional 70 per cent of their salary.
