A meeting between three striking teacher unions in Ghana, namely the Ghana National Association of Teachers, the National Association of Graduate Teachers, and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers Ghana, and the Government led by the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations ended inconclusively on Wednesday, March 27, 2024.
The closed-door meeting, which lasted almost two hours at the Employment Ministry, abruptly concluded after the teacher unions refused to call off their industrial action ahead of negotiations with the government team.
The Government team included the Ministers of Education and Employment and Labour Relations, as well as officials from the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission.
Professor Charles Adabo Oppong, Director of Grievances and Negotiations at the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, disclosed to the media at the end of the meeting that the Government team was willing to continue negotiations with the unions only if they called off the strike as directed by the National Labour Commission (NLC).
He emphasized that they would be ready to resume negotiations if the unions complied with the NLC's directive to call off the strike before the scheduled meeting.
The NLC had directed the unions to call off the strike and continue negotiations with their employers on Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at 1400 hours. However, the unions insisted that they would have to follow their “internal procedures” to call off the industrial action.
The three teacher unions commenced nationwide industrial action on March 20, 2024, citing nine demands related to their conditions of service, including the provision of laptops to teachers, scheme of service, blockage of salaries by the Office of the Special Prosecutor, and various allowances such as Continuous Professional Development Allowance, Deprived Area Allowance, Rent Allowance, Transport Allowance, Utility Subsidy Allowance, and Teaching Assessment Allowance.
Source: Jesse Ampah Owusu
