Teachers call for better conditions of service

Sunyani, July 21, GNA - Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) on Thursday called for meaningful a living salaries and wages policy and structure for all workers to halt the alarming rate of industrial unrests in the country.

District chairmen and members of salaries as well as terms and conditions of service sub-committee of the association drawn from Ashanti and Brong-Ahafo regions made the call in a communiqu=E9 at the end of a three-day workshop on capacity building in Sunyani. The 46 participants noted that workers, particularly teachers, had been marginalized "for far too long on improved conditions of service because successive governments since colonial times felt the teachers' front offered the least resistance".

They said the agreed terms and conditions of service had been violated by the employer and expressed concern about the absence of any well-defined salary and wages policy.

The participants noted with concern that the political re-active model approach being used by the government to solve salary issues turned to be selective in scope and ad-hoc in nature and had the tendency and potency to cause disaffection among workers and thus lead to industrial unrest.

"Government's foot-dragging tactics toward negotiations on salaries and wages should change for a more pragmatic approach devoid of apathy, bureaucracy and red-tapeism", they said.

The participants however called on the leadership of GNAT not to negotiate or continue to negotiate with government on salaries based on the Ghana Universal Salary Structure.