GES/TEWU Collective Agreement signed

Accra, Sept. 4, GNA - The six-year-old review of the expired Collective Agreement between the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) of the Ghana TUC has now been signed.

Negotiations over the Agreement, which expired since 2001 had traversed the tenure of three Director Generals of the GES and attracted the highest number of strikes in the history of the GES, was finally signed on August 6, after protracted negotiations. Mr Daniel Ayim Antwi, General Secretary of TEWU, who disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Accra on Tuesday said the revised two-year agreement took retrospective effect from January 2007. He said the signing of the Agreement was timely as it had put to an end a protracted problem that would create a harmonious atmosphere within the GES towards the smooth implementation of the Education Reform Programme.

According to Mr Ayim Antwi, the long delay by management of the GES to discuss the agreement generated protests from TEWU members, drawing the intervention of the National Labour Commission, which compelled the GES to negotiate the new agreement with the Union.

He said Mr Samuel Bannerman-Mensah, Director General, Miss Benedicta Naana Biney, Deputy Director General, Mrs Nancy H Opoku, Acting Director of Human Resource Development and Mr Ian A Tagoe, Acting Chief Personnel Officer, signed for the GES, while Mr Ayim Antwi, Alhaji H I Kambasi, National Chairman and Ms Margaret Nartey, National Vice-Chairperson also initialled for TEWU. 04 Sept. 07