Teachers Strike 2 Looming with Over 300K teachers to stay Home, Government Given 24Hrs
Teachers Strike 2 Looming with Over 300K teachers to stay Home, Government Given 24Hrs
The government has twenty-four hours to avert a nationwide resumption of strike by pre-tertiary teacher unions.
According to the leadership of the unions, agitations are mounting among the over 300,000 teachers nationwide and the government must act fast.
General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Thomas Musah Tanko, spoke exclusively with TV3’s labor correspondent Daniel Opoku in Accra on April 24, 2024.
The pre-tertiary teacher unions after calling off their strike have been upset by the slow pace of the ongoing negotiations.
According to the leadership of the teachers, the items they tabled before the government have still not been addressed.
The unions are demanding 20 percent of basic pay for teachers in deprived areas which has not been paid for 15 years now.
They are also asking for the payment of a professional development allowance of GHC1,200 a year for teachers but the government is yet to comply.
“Currently, the continuous development all the gains have been eroded and the government must do something about it, the government must also deal with extra-curricular allowance,” Mr. Tanko said.
The pre-tertiary teacher unions are upset that the foot dragging by the government during the negotiations is causing agitations on their front.
Mr Tanko who spoke on behalf of the teacher unions said, the government should act fast to prevent any strike.
“The teachers have gotten to their elastic limit. Please we are sounding a warning that don’t take this thing lightly, we as leaders have sounded the warning, if managers take it lightly they should blame themselves,” he asserted.
He was also disturbed that those who attend the negotiations from the Finance Ministry do not have the mandate to make binding decisions.
“The Ministry of Finance seems not to appreciate the magnitude of the case, the person they send cannot talk and that is affecting the negotiations,” he explained.
Source; 3News.com
