COLA STRIKE 2022: GES to meet leadership of striking teacher unions today

EducationGhana| July 06| COLA STRIKE 2022: GES to meet the leadership of striking teacher unions today:

The Ghana Education Service (GES) is expected to meet with the leadership of the four teacher unions which have declared a strike action over the non-payment of their Cost of Living Allowance (COLA).

Public Relations Officer of the Education Ministry, Kwesi Kwarteng in an interview with JoyNews on Tuesday said the meeting will “develop a roadmap and engage on how to bring this issue to an end.”

“We hope that by the close of today [Wednesday] some progress would have been made,” he told Emefa Apawu on Newsnight.

Mr Kwarteng is optimistic that the various stakeholders involved would show commitment and goodwill to resolve the impasse.

Responding to calls by the Minority for schools to be shut down due to the strike action, he noted that the GES directive for schools to remain open despite the industrial action is the best interim solution.

“We know there is a problem and we know there has to be a decision that ought to be made…In the interim, this takes very good care of these children while we look at an immediate resolution of the strike action which is just tomorrow. That is even with regards to the schools that are operating the boarding system in the SHS schools.

“If you come to the basic level that is the primary schools to the JHS level, we could not have shut down the schools because it is possible that some parents did not even know and the temptation to take their wards to school will be high,” he stated.

Background

Four teacher unions on Monday, July 4 declared an indefinite nationwide strike over demands for the payment of Cost of Living Allowance (COLA).

The unions, comprising the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers Ghana (CCT), are demanding that 20% of their basic salary be paid to them.

“We can no longer bear the hardship. Even more so, we reject the inequality of salaries in the public services of this country. We have been compelled under the current circumstances to publicly communicate to Ghanaians on our intention to go on strike, having gone past the June 30, 2022 deadline [that] we gave the government for the payment of the Cost of Living Allowance.

“Consequently, we have decided to embark on a strike action effective today, Monday, July 4, 2022. By this, we are informing the general public that we are withdrawing all our services in all the pre-tertiary education space – this includes teaching and non-teaching staff,” the teachers announced.