Parliament initiates move for striking CETAG members to be paid July salaries

The Education Committee of Parliament has initiated a move to get the Ministry of Education to rescind its decision to stop the payment of July salaries to striking members of the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG).

The Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) has directed the Controller and Accountant General’s Department not to pay the July 2024 salaries of all CETAG members excluding the College Principals.

This move follows the ongoing strike by CETAG members which has been on for the past six weeks.

The teachers are embarking on industrial action to protest the government’s delay in implementing the arbitral award and negotiated service conditions.

GTEC in a letter to the Accountant General’s Department dated Monday, July 22, stated, “At the instance of the Minister of Education on the non-adherence of CETAG members to call off an illegal strike from June 2024, you are by this letter requested to stop the salaries of all teaching staff of the Colleges of Education (CETAG) except for the College Principals for July 2024.”

“By this letter, College Principals are not to validate the July 2024 salaries of all teaching staff.”

But commenting on the issue in an interview with Starr News, the Ranking Member of Parliament’s Education Committee, Peter Nortsu Kotoe said the move by the Education Minister against the teachers is improper.

“The Chairman of the Committee and myself met the Minister of Employment and expressed our reservation about the decision being taken by GTEC on the instruction of the Ministry for Education is improper. So we asked him to make the Ministry withdraw that letter and he promised that he was going to do so so that their salaries would not be frozen for July.

“We were of the view that if you want a solution to the matter you go and stop their salary, it will not solve the problem, it will rather aggravate the problem. So, the Minister for Labour and Employment understood our position and according to him he has agreed to make sure that they take their salaries for July.”