Controller ordered to recover paid November salary of CETAG members

The Head of Payroll at the Controller and Accountant General’s Department has been ordered to recover November salary paid to College of Education teachers who went on a sit-down strike.

The teachers would however be paid their December salary, the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) advised in a communication to the Controller and Accountant General’s Department on Tuesday, December 11, 2018.

The affected teachers under the umbrella body, Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG), embarked on industrial action on October 29 in all the 46 Colleges of Education.

“Failure to reach agreement with Government on Interim Market Premium as well as Book and Research allowance for members of CETAG, after a three-month period of negotiation,” CETAG cited as reason for the action.

Even before the National Labour Commission (NLC) compelled CETAG and the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) to submit to compulsory arbitration, government communicated to the teachers that they would not be paid their November salary for staying out of the classroom more than 23 days.

CETAG who would not describe their action as a strike because they were “at post technically and we are still carrying out some of our duties”, returned fire, saying they would only go back to the negotiation table when the November salary is paid.

But after arbitration, the NLC, on November 29, ordered the teachers to resume work and restore full services from December 3.

Meanwhile, the National Council for Tertiary Education has stuck to its decision not to pay the teachers for November.

The Council noted that “few Colleges did not comply with the directive” not to validate all teaching staff for the month of November.

In situations where the November salaries have been processed, the Council wants the Controller to recover them immediately.

“Reports received so far indicates that November and December salaries have been merged in some cases.

“It will therefore be appreciated if you proceed to recover all November 2018 salaries of teaching staff in the Colleges of Education designated as Tutors or Assistant Tutors with urgency.

“No tutor or assistant tutor is supposed to have been paid for November 2018.”