Strike action affects schools

It appears the strike action started yesterday by some labour unions in the country has adversely affected the education sector even though its impact is yet to be fully felt nationwide. BUSINESS GUIDE embarked on visits to some establishments to assess the situation in the Accra metropolis.

Some teachers indicated that their superiors did not inform them on time and so they went to work.

“But now that we have received confirmation from our bosses, we are starting the action from tomorrow,” a Senior High School (SHS) teacher told this paper when contacted via phone.

However, other teachers are reported to have deserted their classrooms in tandem with the strike action.

In the health sector, the paper gathered that health professionals only attended to emergency cases and also people who were already on admission while new patients were totally denied health services.

The law courts were also seen attending to cases pending before them.

The 12 labour groups said their move is aimed at forcing government to pay their tier two pension contributions into a privately managed account.

The unions said Government had not been fair to their members.

But Haruna Iddrisu, Minister of Labour and Employment, reacting to the action by the groups, said the strike action was unlawful.

The labour unions mentioned that Government had deliberately refused to release the second tier pension funds to fund managers selected by them.

It rather wants the unions to register with a particular fund manager which is contrary to the new pension law.

The new pension law allows SSNIT to take 13.5 per cent from contributors while 5 per cent goes to the second tier operators to be managed for the contributors.

Such arrangement started from 2010 but to date no payments have been made to fund managers under the second tier scheme.