The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers Association (CCT) have called off their strike based on a court order.
After several interventions to get the three teacher unions back to the classrooms, the National Labour Commission decided to resort to legal action by filing the case in court which led to the teachers calling off the strike.
Of this, the three unions have asked all teachers to go to their various schools and teach their students on Monday, November 14, 2022.
The Unions stated that although they have called off the strike, they will be meeting again with the National Labour Commission on Wednesday, November 16, 2022, to finalize the issue that led to the strike action.
Meanwhile, the GNAT, NAGRAT, and CCT have explained that failure to call off the strike even after meeting NLC does not mean the Unions disregard the Commission’s orders but continued the strike in order to fight for the interest of their members.
The president of the National Association of Graduate Teachers, Mr. Eric Angel Carbonu addressing the media in Accra today pronounced that “the assumptions by the teacher unions to define the orders of the Labour Commission is not true and that the unions were just of the view that the right thing should be done”
“We are law-abiding citizens, we have decided to obey the orders of the court and have asked our members to call off the strike and to go back to the classroom and ensure that we comply with the directive given by the Labour Commission that we engage the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations and report to the Labour Commission on the 16th, which is next week Wednesday on issues that led to the strike in the first place. We are determined to do that with the engagement of the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations and the Ministry of Education” he noted.
BACKGROUND
Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers Association (CCT) on Friday, November 4, 2022, declared an indefinite industrial strike due to the appointment of Dr. Eric Nkansah as Director General of Ghana Education Service which they described as unconstitutional.
Other reasons for the strike action were, the failure of the Ministry of Education to promote qualified teachers in the profession, the failure to harness the payment of car or vehicle maintenance allowance to teachers, and the reluctance to deliver laptops for teachers to facilitate their teaching in the various schools.
After that, the unions met with the National Labour Commission and the Ministry of Education to resolve the issues but everything went futile till the Court ordered the Unions to call off the strike today, November 11, 2022.