The Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG) has called off its eight-week strike action with immediate effect as an agreement was reached in a virtual meeting today.
The decision to call off the strike follows CETAG’s meeting with the Office of the Vice President on 15th August 2024 at the Jubilee House, it was with the assurance to stand surety for the resolution of the impasse.
The assurances were confirmed in a meeting between the Government Team and representatives of CETAG at the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations (MELR) on Monday, 19 August 2024 which the Government team gave a roadmap with clear timelines for fulfilling the outstanding concerns CETAG.
However, CETAG leadership wishes to reiterate that strike action shall resume at the end of October 2024 if the Government fails to follow its promised roadmap.
In a news statement copied to The High Street Journal (THSJ) indicated that the frozen July 2024 and August 2024 salaries shall be paid together at the end of August 2024, and the offline migration of the staff shall be completed at the end of August 2024.
The statement also said the offline migration data shall be sent to all 46 colleges of education for verification by individual staff before processing by the Controller and Accountant General (CAGD) in September 2024.
It said payment after migration will reflect in October 2024 salaries that the parties involved shall meet to agree on the payment plan for all arrears immediately and 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.
Additionally, the compensation for All-Year-Round work done in 2022 shall be paid by the end of August, while holders of researched master’s degrees shall be migrated as Assistant Lecturers.
Moreover, CETAG leadership extended its gratitude to the Vice President’s Senior Advisor, Hon. Fred Oware, for his advocacy role in resolving the impasse which has seen CETAG on strike for over eight weeks.
The Association thanked the Ministers for Employment and Labour Relations, Education, and Finance, and the Chief Executive of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission for showing strong commitment to fulfilling all the outstanding concerns of members with a clear roadmap.
The leadership expressed gratitude to all members across the 46 colleges of education for remaining resolute for the past eight weeks to ensure that justice is served.
Background:
CETAG members in all 46 Colleges of Education on 14th June embarked on strike action over the government’s delay in implementing their National Labour Commission’s Arbitral Award and negotiated service conditions.
Some of their demands include the payment of one month’s salary to each member for additional duties performed in 2022 and applying agreed rates of allowances payable to public universities to deserving CETAG members.
The impasse brought academic activities on all campuses of colleges of education to a halt, leading to the proposed closure of the colleges while the issue was being resolved.
