Volta teachers demonstrate over unpaid allowances
A number of teachers from various parts of the Volta Region last Friday (May 3) took part in a peaceful demonstration on the streets of Ho to press home their demand for the payment of the deprived area and three other key allowances by the government.
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The teachers, spotting red shirts, included members of the Ghana National Association of Ghana (GNAT), National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and Coalition of Concerned Teachers Ghana.
They marched from the Ho Central Market through the principal streets of the regional capital to the Volta Regional Coordinating Council (VRCC), where they presented a petition to the Regional Coordinating Director, Augustus Awity.
Petition
The Regional Minister, Dr Archibald Yao Letsa, was away on an official duty at the time. The march was led by the Regional Secretary of GNAT, Kassim Seidu Baba; the Regional Chairman of NAGRAT, David Gellie, and the Regional Chairman of CCT-GH, Solomon Takyi.
In the petition, the teachers said since the negotiation of their Collective Agreement in 2009, and after the 2020 Collective Agreement, the government had not implemented the teachers’ allowances agreed on.
Apart from the derived area allowance, the petition also mentioned the extra assessment, book/data/online, and the upward adjustment of the continuous professional development allowances over which it said the government was still adamant and demonstrating bad faith.
Unions
Meanwhile, the petition said members of the pre-tertiary teacher unions were reeling under the utter hardship imposed on them by the harsh economic conditions in the country, adding the last 24 months had been most tortuous for the Ghanaian teacher, with no ray of hope for relief from the employer.
“We wish to state in the strongest terms that should the employer fail to address our demand on or before May 13, 2024, then we shall call on leadership to take action immediately,” warned the petition.
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Receiving the petition, Mr Augustus Awity commended the teachers for the peaceful manner in which they carried out the demonstration. He gave an assurance that the petition would be presented to the Regional Minister as soon he returned to the office.