The withholding of our August salary by the government is an affront to Ghana’s democratic principles,” stated John Newton Kumi, Vice President of the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG), during a radio interview on Accra’s Starr FM on Tuesday, August 22, 2023.
This reaction came after the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) issued a directive to the Controller and Accountant General’s Department to abstain from validating August salaries for CETAG members due to their ongoing strike, which rendered them inactive for the month.
The directive extended to the withholding of allowances for the teaching staff across all 46 Colleges of Education.
Vice President Newton Kumi emphasized that their strike action had not been deemed illegal by the National Labour Commission (NLC).
He further noted, “CETAG has consistently abided by the law throughout this period of dispute. The government has frequently brought our case to the NLC for arbitration. It’s worth noting that we have not initiated any such action against the government.
The NLC has even issued awards through compulsory arbitration, which the government has chosen not to honor.
We provided ample information and allowed over a month for the necessary steps to be taken to prevent further escalation, but our appeals fell on deaf ears.
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