Workers of TVET sound alarm of strike action over salary structure discrepancies

Staff of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Service institutions in Ghana may soon embark on industrial action to vent their grievances over what they describe as "exploitation and injustices" to drum home their demands.

According to them, the refusal by authorities to migrate members from the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) salary payment structure module onto that of the TVET payment structure module is unfair, as their members are being short-changed, which is a great disservice to their welfare.

They say they are struggling to understand the reluctance by authorities to migrate them onto their own payment structure, which has been in place for over a year now, despite numerous unfulfilled promises by authorities to do so.

They told this reporter in an interview that authorities have been dilly-dallying with the situation for far too long, making them consider staging industrial action, as that is the only language they are likely to understand.

According to them, they were promised the migration was to be effected in January this year, which never saw the light of day, and were again promised another timeline of June, which also passed without any positive result.

They said they were again told the migration would now come off in August this year, which they indicated they are skeptical about due to the demeanor of authorities towards their plight.

Speaking to this reporter, a staff member, said the situation is so bad to the extent that even some staff with higher certificates are made to take home lower salaries than their counterparts with less superior certificates simply because they are from the local government but also within the TVET service.

"Can you imagine that there are some of us from the local government receiving higher salaries than us? For instance, in my case, I'm an HND holder, and yet, those with diploma certificates in my school are receiving a higher salary than me. Can you imagine that? Is that fair? How can that be possible? Even those with first-degree teaching in the service are not getting their deserved salaries simply because they are being paid using the NVTI payment structure. And these are the issues we're crying for them to fix, but to no avail till now," Lanjinbu lamented.

They noted that ideally, all the staff, including those from GES and local government in the service, must be moved onto the TVET salary payment structure module created for the service to ensure fairness and conformity.

They further vented their grievances to this reporter, highlighting a plethora of challenges being meted out to them, which they said is the justification of their claim of exploitation and injustices by authorities.

"Failing to implement conditions of service for junior staff since 2020; a degree staff is intentionally put on the salary scale of PSL instead of PSH; no yearly incremental salary (points) for staff; no 15% market premium for staff; and no allowance for facilitators who use machines and tools in the dispensation of their work."

"There is no professional development allowance for staff; there is a lack of communication between the Director-General and staff, especially issues affecting their welfare, etc.; and TVET has deliberately put the granting of transfers into the pockets of principals," they alleged.

"A worker who is employed by the service must struggle to get his arrears paid; some principals who have been in the NVTI process, etc., for a long time are abusing staff; and 80% of TVET schools are in highly deprived areas, but there is no deprived allowance for staff," they added.