General Secretary of Ghana National Teacher Association (GNAT) Thomas Musah Tanko has said that the look forward eagerly to their upcoming meeting with the Labor Commission on April 17th.
He said the Teacher unions will use the opportunity to express the need to address longstanding concerns regarding various allowances and financial matters affecting their members.
“We wanted the end of the strike to be immediate because per the ruling of the Labour Commission, we are to return to them on the 17th of April. And we think that will give us the whole time to get the work done,” Tanko stated.
Tanko highlighted several critical concerns of members that remain unresolved. These include, the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) allowance, housing allowance, transport allowance, and other pertinent financial matters.
“We have about ten allowances that we compressed into this particular six (6). Initially, three (3) of them were agreed, the scheme of service and then the issue of the timetable and other related matters. Three (3) items have been addressed, the six (6) outstanding items on the table, that is what we will be looking at,’’ he said on TV3’S Ghana Tonight, on Tuesday, April 2.
Furthermore, Tanko expressed frustration over what they perceive as a lack of progress in addressing these concerns over the years. They pointed out that since the expiration of their collective agreement in 2009, and its subsequent renewal in August 2020, many allowances outlined in the agreement have not been implemented.
“Since 2017, since this government came into office, the only allowance that teachers have had is 1,200. So, for the past 7 years, the only allowance that a teacher has received is an amount of 100 Ghana cedis’’ he said.
He also criticized what they view as bureaucratic hurdles hindering the implementation of agreed-upon allowances, citing instances where efforts to gather data and address teacher welfare were stymied by administrative roadblocks.
In response to these challenges, Tanko reiterated its commitment to negotiating with relevant authorities to secure fair and adequate allowances for its members.
“We sponsored most of these trips, field trips outside to go and check on the teacher living in deprived communities, how best we can gather data and all that,” Tanko explained. “But when it came to the time of the implementation, they brought other concerns that it cannot be done because it is only the Ghana Statistical Service that has the mandate to get it done.”
By Eva Boamah