Govt Freezes Salaries of Colleges of Education Teachers
The government of Ghana has decided to freeze the July salaries of Colleges of Education Teachers across the country in response to their failure to call off their strike action over their conditions of service.
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.
“By this letter, College Principals are not to validate the July 2024 salaries of all teaching staff.”
However, the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG) contends that their strike is legal and has warned against any attempt to carry on with 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.”
“We want to caution that any attempt to illegally freeze salaries of our members who are on a legal strike shall be met with legal action against whoever takes such an action. CETAG will no longer tolerate injustice against its members because Ghana is a country governed by the rule of law.”
It is not prepared to call off the strike until the government complies with all the outstanding arbitration awards by NLC, it noted.
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 given by 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.
