Strike looming as CETAG threatens to embark on strike.

The Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG) is gearing up to embark on industrial action.

This comes after the May 31 ultimatum the Association gave the government, demanding a resolution of their service conditions, elapsed without any progress.

The Association cited frustration over the government’s delay in implementing the National Labour Commission’s (NLC) Arbitral Award Orders and negotiated service conditions.

These demands include compensating each member with one month’s salary for additional duties performed in 2022, among other issues.

In a letter to the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, CETAG explained that the National Labour Commission is reluctant “to trigger Section 172 of the Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651) to compel our Employer to comply with the 2nd May 2023 and 31st August 2023 orders and directives even though the union complied with the directive of the Commission to call off our strike in August 2023.”

The Association also accused the FWSC and Education Ministry of deliberately refusing “to pay to deserving members of CETAG a top-up of research allowance as arrears arising from the 2023 Conditions of Service (CoS) Agreement signed with Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) which had approval from the Ministry of Finance (MoF) in July 2023 with an ending date of 31st December, 2024.”

However, the statement fell short of highlighting a specific day to embark on the action.

On September 5, 2023, CETAG suspended their initial strike action.

Prince Obeng-Himah in an interview on JoyNews’ AM Show, on that day, explained that “it follows the directives given by the National Labour Commission last Wednesday, asking us to call off the action.”

Mr Obeng-Himah further disclosed that CETAG complied with the NLC’s directives because they had been assured that the NLC “had compelled the government to provide evidence of a full compliance: bringing timelines or providing them with timelines when those that are yet to comply be complied.”