Govt releases GH¢4.5 million for payment of allowances of GES staff

THE government has released GH¢4.5 million for the payment of various categories of allowances for the staff of the Ghana Education Service (GES).

The payment is to be effected latest by Friday, October 2, 2015.

The package includes car maintenance allowance and transfer grant.

A statement signed and issued by the acting Director-General of the GES, Mr Jacob A.M. Kor, said, “This follows a meeting held yesterday under the chairmanship of the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, with two teacher unions; National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT), to address some pertinent grievances of teachers in the country.”

Agreement signed

An agreement was reached and signed by the various parties comprising Mr Kor, the Chief Executive of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, Mr Smith Graham, the President of NAGRAT, Mr Christian Addai-Opoku; and the President of CCT, Mr Ernest Opoku.

The meeting was attended by officials from the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, the Ghana Education Service, the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, the Controller and Accountant General’s Department as well as the Ghana Audit Service.

The Ashanti Regional branch of NAGRAT had given the government a six-day ultimatum, which was supposed to expire on yesterday, September 30, 2015, to honour a four-point demand or its members would be compelled to lay down their tools, reports Daniel Kenu.

The action of the Ashanti regional branch brings to four, regional branches backing calls by the national executive for the government to meet their demands by the expiry date.

The four-point demand included payment of annual incremental credits, three months pay policy on newly recruited and promoted staff, transfer grants and travel and transport allowances and non-negotiation of collective agreement.

The Regional Chairman of NAGRAT, Mr Paul Stanley Essaw, told a press conference in Kumasi yesterday that all efforts to get the government to honour its obligation, with regard to the concerns, had proved futile.

‘By the roadmap presented by the working group, in their report to the National Labour Commission, the parties agreed that all newly recruited teachers and teachers on promotion, who were paid only three months of their entitlement, be paid all outstanding arrears on or before June 30, 2014.

“At times, one is forced to question if the NLC has any relevance,” Mr Essaw asked.

In a related development, Mary Anane reports that the Volta Region branch of NAGRAT had added its voice to a call on the government to pay all allowances and salary arrears owed its memebrs.

The Regional Secretary, Mr Kenneth Adevu, at a press conference in Ho, indicated that the teachers would have no option but to abandon the classrooms, if the government failed to heed their call by the close of yesterday.

Grievance

Mr Adevu indicated that the teachers had been working for the past three years without a collective bargaining agreement because “government has failed to renegotiate with them for a new one after the old agreement expired in 2011”.

He noted that the absence of a new collective agreement was a huge disservice to the staff of the Ghana Education Service (GES), since the renegotiation of the document would have afforded teachers the opportunity to revise the rates of benefits already in operation.