Govt begs teachers: Don’t strike

The Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Haruna Iddrisu has appealed to teachers to rescind their decision to strike, as stakeholders meet with the leadership of the teachers on Monday 22 February 2016.

The National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and other teacher unions have accused government of failing to honour its promises to pay them accumulated salary arrears. They have issued an ultimatum to lay down their tools by the end of the month.

But with less than two weeks to the expiry of the deadline, NAGRAT has said it is disappointed in the education minister, who has failed to address the needs of teachers.

“We are shocked that while we are sacrificing to work in an environment where resources are inadequate, we are rather being blamed for the woes of education in this country. We are saying these arrears would have been paid if the minister of education had stepped in to put pressure on the ministry of finance and the Controller and Accountant General,” NAGRAT President Christian Addae-Poku noted at a press conference held on 18 February 2016.

But Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Haruna Iddrisu, has said government has not reneged on its assurance. He explained that government rolled out a new policy decision to secure the pay roll and eliminate payroll fraud.

Accordingly, the Controller and Accountant General’s Department was mandated to review new appointments that had been cleared in order for government “to satisfy itself that the particular employee is at post”.

According to him, “they [teachers] submitted a list of 14,000 teachers, which had to go through a validation exercise. After the exercise, government has paid 6,000, who were cleared, but what is outstanding is the 8,000 and many of them had issues of irregularities in the forms that they completed”.

“They [teachers] said they wanted some outstanding allowances paid, transfer drafts, motorbike and car allowances and that has been paid,” he explained in an interview with Dzifa Bampoe on Joy FM Thursday February 18.

The minister indicated: “Whatever it is, we want a serene industrial atmosphere”.

He urged the teachers to continue the dialogue with stakeholders as government remained committed to the roadmap both parties collectively agreed.