Two times public sector staff had their salaries forfeited over illegal strike

Around the world, labour agitations and strikes are commonplace. They are actions employed by workers to demand and receive what they believe they deserve from their employers.

However, workers who engage in illegal strikes have a price to pay, including forfeiting their salary for the month(s) they fail to work.

GhanaWeb examines instances where public sector workers in Ghana have had to forfeit their salaries while on an illegal strike.

Currently, the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG), have been on strike.

While the government and the Ghana Labour Commission (NLC) have described the action as illegal, CETAG members have not not paid their salaries for July 2024.

On July 22, the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) instructed the Controller and Accountant General’s Department to suspend the salaries of all striking CETAG members, except for the principals of colleges, for July 2024.

CETAG members laid down their tools weeks ago, demanding improved working conditions and the enforcement of a National Labour Commission (NLC) ruling.

In 2015, some public sector staff who went on strike and failed to resume work were also not paid their salaries.

While doctors and pharmacists were on strike demanding better conditions of service, members of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) demanded the payment of their book and research allowances.

A statement issued by the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations indicated that it was stated in the Labour Law that workers on an illegal strike risk forfeiting their salaries during the strike period.

“Government wishes to remind all public sector workers of the provisions of the Labor Act 2003 (Act 651), which states, among other issues, that a worker on strike ‘may forfeit his/her remuneration in respect of the period during which he/she is engaged in the illegal strike’,” the statement, issued by then sector Minister, Haruna Iddrisu, said.

The government directed all heads of government establishments where workers had engaged in an illegal (partial or full) strike to compile and submit to their respective ministers of state, the list of workers who had been absent from work due to a strike or protest.

The compiled lists were to be submitted to the Ministry of Finance by Friday, August 14, 2015, for necessary action.

The statement appealed to striking workers to end their strike and return to work while negotiating in good faith.

But the General Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association at the time, Dr. Frank Serebuor, said the group would not end the strike until their demands were met.

“As for the salaries, we the doctors have stated very clearly we are not afraid of non-payment of salaries and we can even go for a year without them, and so nobody should think that we are afraid, we are resolute on that matter,” he earlier told Accra-based Citi FM.

KA/MA

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