CETAG Calls Off 8-Week-old Strike

The Colleges of Education Teachers Association (CETAG) has finally given in to pleas to call off their strike action after two months.

In a statement on Tuesday, August 20, 2024, the Association said they had held a meeting with the Office of the Vice President and a subsequent meeting with the Government Team at the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations (MELR) on Monday, 15 August 2024 during which a roadmap was developed.

As part of the roadmap, their frozen July 2024 and August 2024 salaries must be paid together at the end of August while the offline migration of the staff shall be completed at the end of August 2024 and sent to all 46 colleges of education for verification by individual staff before processing by the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) in September 2024.

Additionally, the payment after migration will reflect in October 2024 salaries with a scheduled meeting to agree on the payment plan for all arrears immediately.
Also, the roadmap stipulates that the nomenclature to be used for migrating Senior Members of the Teaching staff shall be Assistant Lecturer, Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor, and Professor in line with the affiliate universities’ Scheme of Service.

“That, compensation for All-Year-Round work done in 2022 shall be paid by the end of August 2024, and that, all holders of researched Master’s degrees shall be migrated as Assistant Lecturers,” the statement added.

Based on these developments and assurances, the National Council of the Association held a meeting to unanimously agree to call off the strike on August 20, 2024.
It, however, warned that the strike action will resume in October if the “Employer fails to follow the roadmap”.

Strike Declaration
CETAG declared the strike on June 14, 2024, over the failure of the government to comply with the NLC’s decisions and orders to implement the Compulsory Arbitration Awards agreed by the parties.

They include an order for the payment of one-month salary to each entitled member of CETAG as compensation for additional duty performed in 2022; an order that the agreed rates of allowances payable to public universities be applied to deserving members of CETAG; and an order that the implementation of the completed Staff Audit exercise shall commence from 1st January 2023.

A letter by the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) to the Controller and Accountant General’s Department on July 22, 2024, characterised the strike by the teachers as illegal as it directed the Department to freeze their salaries.

The directive, it said, had been sanctioned by the Minister for Education, Hon Yaw Osei Adutwum.

However, the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG) contended that their strike is legal and warned against any attempt to implement the Minister’s directive.

In a press statement on July 22, they said, “We are by this press statement informing the public that CETAG’s strike action is legitimate since the Union followed all lay down processes before declaring the action.”