GES Deputy Director-Gen. worried about growing petitions

Kumasi, Sept. 11, GNA - Ms Benedicta Naana-Biney, Deputy Director-General of Ghana Education Service (GES), has urged workers of the Service to use internal conflict resolution mechanisms in redressing perceived injustices.

She expressed dissatisfaction about the rising number of petitions to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAG) and National Labour Commission by GES workers. Ms Naana-Biney was opening a two-day legal and labour relations sensitization seminar for district and regional education directors and selected members of the disciplinary committees in the Ashanti Region, in Kumasi.

She said it was becoming a daily routine for the GES authorities to appear before these constitutional bodies to justify decisions which had not gone down well with some employees. Ms Naana-Biney, however, acknowledged the right of all aggrieved employees to turn to those bodies if they were convinced that they could help them get justice.

The seminar was discussing the judicial and executive aspects of collective agreement negotiations, operating the code of conduct for teachers in basic schools and disciplinary proceedings in second cycle institutions. Ms Naana-Biney urged participants to ensure that the manner in which authority was exercised, did not infringe on the rights of the worker.

She asked the GES authorities to ensure fundamental and constitutional rights workers. Nana Kofi Adu II, a Labour Consultant, said the seminar was aimed at sensitising GES authorities on their roles and responsibilities. He said more than 600 directors of education, members of disciplinary committees, human resource officers and representatives of Ghana National Association of Teacher (GNA), National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) benefitted from the seminar.