The Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG) has warned that it may be compelled to reactivate its industrial action due to the government’s failure to address its grievances.

CETAG suspended a two-month strike in August after receiving assurances from the government that its members would be migrated to the public universities’ salary structure by the end of October 2024.

However, the leadership of CETAG has expressed disappointment at the government’s unfulfilled promise, accusing it of displaying a lack of respect towards the association’s members.

In a statement released on Monday, October 28, CETAG President Prince Obeng-Himah cautioned that their members are increasingly aggrieved and may soon take matters into their own hands.

“We wish to inform the general public that the Association shall no longer sit down for the Government to deliberately short-change its members.

“For the past two years, the Government has cunningly used a series of fruitless meetings with the Association to pretend it was in the process of honouring the NLC’s Compulsory Arbitration Award for CETAG members which has turned out to be a mirage.

“Based on the foregoing developments, CETAG members have resolved to take our destinies into our hands henceforth as it is now clear that our legitimate demands are not of priority to the Government. We shall soon advise ourselves accordingly very soon as never before.”

Read below the statement by CETAG

GOVERNMENT’S BREACH OF SIGNED AGREEMENTS WITH CETAG, DISQUIETING

The Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG) wishes to express disappointment and frustration at the Government’s deliberate breach of its agreements reached with the Association on 24 July 2024 and 19 August 2024, as well as the appeal by the Senior Advisor to the Vice President of the Republic, which members accepted in good faith by calling off the Association’s over our two-month strike action in August 2024.

By this press statement, we are drawing the attention of all stakeholders in teacher education and the good people of Ghana to the fact that the Government has shown bad faith by not migrating CETAG members to the public universities’ salary structure at the end of October 2024 in violation to agreement by the parties.

Additionally, the Government has failed to pay the one-month basic salary as compensation for additional work done by CETAG members in 2022 as ordered by the National Labour Commission (NLC) on 2nd May 2023. Regrettably, assurances from the Minister for Education, Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, and the Senior Advisor to the Vice President to ensure that CETAG members are paid by August 2024 have been in vain.
As of today, there has not been any feedback from the Minister for Education, the Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, and the Senior Advisor to the Vice President regarding their failure to honour their assurances to members of CETAG by addressing the outstanding concerns by the end of October 2024.

CETAG regards such inaction by the authorities as bad faith and disrespect to CETAG members who train the teachers the nation needs to improve its educational outcomes. Also, we all recall how the Minister for Education sat on television to create an impression that CETAG leadership was acting in bad faith when our National Council rejected some terms in the signed MoA in July 2024.

In conclusion, we wish to inform the general public that the Association shall no longer sit down for the Government to deliberately short-change its members. For the past two years, the Government has cunningly used series of fruitless meetings with the Association to pretend it was in the process of honouring the NLC’s Compulsory Arbitration Award for CETAG members which has turned out to be a mirage.

Based on the foregoing developments, CETAG members have resolved to take our destinies into our hands henceforth as it is now clear that our legitimate demands are not of priority to the Government.

We shall soon advise ourselves accordingly very soon as never before.
Thank you.