GNAT calls on govt to pay outstanding arrears

The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has called on the government to pay all outstanding allowances, transfer grants and salary arrears of its members by the end of this month.

Addressing the press in Accra, the General Secretary of GNAT, Mr David Ofori Acheampong, said  some of its members “are starving to the point of desperation” and  if the government failed to address the issues within the stipulated period  “the association will implement certain strategies which will be communicated to the public in due time.”

“As a union, we believe in the sanctity of the school environment and would, therefore, not deliberately do anything that would disrupt academic activities. However, we have already given notice about our intentions to the National Labour Commission,” he said.

 With regard to the salary arrears, Mr Acheampong said the assertion by the Minister of Finance , Mr Seth Terkper, during a press conference last Tuesday, that the government had no salary arrears to pay was inaccurate, and added that “it appears that the minister’s representatives are not giving him the right briefings”.

According to him, as a result of a directive, which stipulates the procedure for the payment of salary arrears for public sector employees issued by MOF in 2013, many newly appointed, promoted and reinstated teachers had not received their salary arrears for many months.

In November 2013, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) issued a directive to all ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to inform them that henceforth, the ministry would pay an initial three months’ salary arrears to beneficiaries such as new entrants, promoted/upgraded and re-engaged or re-instated staff.

The policy added that the MOF would only effect the  payment of any outstanding arrears beyond the three months period if a beneficiary submits a completed payments of salary arrears forms through his or her sector ministry for validation and subsequently, to the MOF for payment.

The information to be provided on the form includes reasons for delay of the salary and justification for payment.

According to the MOF, the policy directive was part of the government’s measures to improve and control the management of the payroll in order to ensure that only deserving staff who were paid genuinely earned salary arrears.

Unfair treatment

Mr Acheampong, however, described the directive as a “big ploy to deny teachers their legitimate entitlement.”

He said so far teachers were the only public sector workers who had been affected by the directive.

“We thought the directive was meant to protect the national purse, little did we know that it was designed to deny affected teachers their legitimate entitlement after some of them had worked under very severe conditions for more than 12 or 15 months and in some instances 24 months without salary,” he said.