The leadership of the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG) says a meeting with its National Council later this evening, Tuesday, January 11, 2022, will determine whether its ongoing strike action over service conditions would be called off.
The government, after a meeting with the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission, the Ministry of Labour, and the National Labour Commission, promised to pay all arrears owed CETAG members by the end of January 2022 and asked the group to resume work.
But speaking to Citi News, President of CETAG, Prince Obeng-Himan said teaching in all public colleges of education has been put on hold, until a decision to suspend their strike is agreed upon.
“At the end of the conversation, Government admitted that they have not been forthcoming regarding payment, and they asked us to call off the strike because they have shown commitment that the money will be paid at the end of January. But we told them that the strike was declared by the National Council.”
“So we are going to have an emergency CETAG National Council meeting to lay bare what happened at the meeting so that in the opinion of the Council, whatever decision the Council feels is in our best interest, the National leadership will go-ahead to implement it. Until then, the strike is still in force”, he indicated.
Members of CETAG began their strike in all 46 public Colleges of Education last Thursday over claims that the government had failed to implement the 2017-2020 conditions of service, as agreed in a Memorandum of Understanding signed between CETAG and Government.
They want government to pay their interim premiums and book and research allowances.
The last time CETAG embarked on a strike was in December 2018.
This was after it accused the government of breaching the terms of an agreement it had with them on the payment of interim premiums and book and research allowances.
Their strike forced the Ministry of Education to order the closure of all the 46 Colleges of Education in the country.
CETAG subsequently called off the strike after its leadership agreed to resume negotiations with the National Labour Commission and Labour Ministry.
