The Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) is to reconvene another meeting with the leadership of three pre-tertiary teacher unions at a later date to allow the commission to undertake further consultations on the demands presented by the unions.
This followed the inability of the commission and the unions to reach a consensus over the demands of the latter. The three unions are the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), and the Pre-Tertiary Teachers Association of Ghana (PRETAG).
The Chief Executive of the FWSC, Dr George Smith-Graham, said further consultations had become necessary to enable the commission to consider issues raised by the unions and also engage relevant stakeholders before negotiations could resume.
He commended the union leadership for the peaceful manner they conducted themselves during the meeting.
The engagement followed an earlier emergency meeting convened by the Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, with the leadership of the unions on Monday, September 28, 2026, the day the unions commenced a nationwide strike.
The minister subsequently announced that “the FWSC will meet with the unions on Tuesday, October 6, 2026, for detailed discussions on their collective agreement and conditions of service”.
Engagement
The General-Secretary of GNAT, Thomas Musah; the President of NAGRAT, Jacob Anaba, and the President of PRETAG, King Awudu Ali, were in attendance at the office of the FWSC in Accra.
At the end of the meeting, Mr Anaba said the parties did not reach an agreement, adding that "it was inconclusive”.
“We will meet again, but we don't know when we would meet again".
He explained that the FWSC was seeking a mandate from the government on their proposals.
The NAGRAT President said unless the FWSC got that mandate, "we don't know when we are meeting again"; hence, the strike was still on.
Strike
The unions are on strike over what they described as the government's failure to pay promoted teachers their salary arrears, including payment of 20 per cent deprived areas allowance and issues on expired conditions of service.
Last Friday, the government's team held a meeting with the unions, which also ended inconclusively, in spite of improved proposals made by the government.
Present at that meeting were the Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu; the Minister of Finance, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson; the Minister of Employment and Job Creation, Emmanuel Kwadwo Agyekum; the Controller and Accountant General, Kwasi Agyei; the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Prof. Ernest Kofi Davis, and Dr Smith-Graham.
Assurance
Addressing the media later, Mr Iddrisu confirmed that the government team had tabled "what I will call an improvement to the teacher unions".
He said their demands were centred on three core issues.
"The government team makes a commitment to the teacher union and to all teachers that we will honour our commitment to the new grades for all promoted teachers on or before October 30, 2026.
"However, from Monday, the Controller and Accountant-General will validate, as he is already validating data of up to 51,000 persons, and a supplementary payment schedule will be provided for that category, and the other category will have it as part of their salaries in October," he said.
"We will honour that and we will, therefore, like to persuade our teachers to honour themselves from Monday by considering calling off their industrial action," the minister pleaded.
He emphasised the need to stabilise the academic calendar after restoring it to September.
