Colleges of Education staff threaten strike over conditions of service

The leaders of the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG) and the Colleges of Education Non-Teaching Staff Association of Ghana (CENTSAG) have expressed their displeasure over the government’s neglect of the welfare of their members in the 46 Colleges of Education over the years.

The associations in a joint statement accused the Government and the Ghana Education Service (GES) of unfair treatment over the years.

CETAG in January 2022 called off its weeks of strike action after the Government assured the association of taking stringent measures to resolve the non-implementation of its 2017-2020 conditions of service, but those resolutions are yet to be implemented 10 months on.

Leadership of the two associations in their statement have therefore given the Ghana Education Service (GES) five crucial working days to address the following outstanding concerns;

i) Non-finalisation of CETAG’s Conditions of Service (CoS) negotiations which started on 14th August 2021 and have direct implications for CENTSAG’s own CoS.

ii)Unilateral determination of April 2023 by the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) as the effective date for placing First Degree Holders of CENTSAG on 17H on the SSSS.

iii) Undue delay by the Ministry of Education in responding to our request for payment of compensation for all-year-round work to both teaching and non-teaching staff.

iv) Deliberate variation of Fuel, Vehicle Maintenance, and Off-Campus allowances of CETAG and CENTSAG members as compared to our counterparts in other analogous institutions in the face of the rising cost of fuel prices in the country.

v) Unfair retrospective deductions of office holding allowances paid to some members of CENTSAG and CETAG.

The unions added that if these concerns are not resolved by November 11, 2022, “we shall reactivate our indefinite strike actions which we suspended on January 24 and April 14, 2022, respectively.”