TEWU members in Western region join strike

Takoradi (W/R) July 2, GNA - Members of the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in the Western Region on Wednesday withdrew their services in support of a strike action relating to disparities and distortions in their salary structure called by the National Secretariat of TEWU.

The grievances of the workers also included non-promotion of administrative personnel, management's refusal to implement collective bargaining agreement proposals and the non-payment of allowances for watchmen.

In an interview with the GNA in Takoradi, Mr Maxwell Oduro, Industrial Relations Officer of the Western Region TEWU said the strike was precipitated by the uncooperative attitude of the management of the Ghana Education Service (GES) towards workers' demands.

He said though some selected workers were paid their salary differences in August last year, a large number of them had still not received their money that should be based on the Ghana Universal Salary Structure (GUSS) introduced in 1999.

Mr Oduro said whereas workers in the teaching field were promoted regularly, their counterparts in administrative positions were ignored, "thus some have to mark time for more than 10 years."

He expressed regret that in spite of persistent reminders sent to the GES to implement the outcome of the GUSS and the management/union Standing Joint Negotiating Committee (SJNC) recommendations, no concrete response has been received.