The National Labour Commission (NLC) has secured a court order to compel the three striking teacher unions to immediately call off their industrial action.
The striking teachers’ unions are expected to comply with the order for the next 10 days.
The order, sighted by Citi News, said the respondents; the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT) were to “comply with the directives of the National Labour Commission dated 5th December 2019.”
“It is hereby ordered that the respondents are restrained from further continuing any strike.”
The National Labour Commission (NLC) on Tuesday ordered the teacher unions to “call off the strike immediately and return to work”.
This instruction came on the back of a scheduled meeting between representatives of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Education Ministry, Fair Wages, and Salaries Commission (FWSC), of which the teacher unions were supposed to be a part of but failed to attend.
The teachers at the time said they had not been officially served with such correspondence and they would respond if they were duly served..
The three teacher unions have been on strike for the past three days demanding the payment of their salary arrears.
But the NLC in a statement stated that “the Commission in the exercise of the authority conferred on it by Section 139 (1)(b) of Act 651 finds the Associations’ action in violation of Act 651 and therefore the ongoing strike of the Unions is illegal.”
The Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Ministry of Education have in separate press releases described the action as baseless, illegal and shocking.
Authorities held a series of meetings with the leadership of the teacher groups where it discussed the payment of the said arrears with the modalities involved adding that a December 5 ultimatum given by the teachers was not realistic.
But the teachers insist their strike is justified on all fronts hence; they will not rescind their decision and will only return to the classrooms if the monies due them are paid.