The National Labour Commission (NLC) has instructed the College of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG) to halt its strike and appear before the Commission for a scheduled hearing.

This directive came about as the leadership of CETAG failed to attend the NLC hearing on Wednesday, August 02, 2023, regarding their ongoing industrial action.

The NLC has further mandated CETAG to present themselves before the Commission on the upcoming Wednesday, August 09, 2023.

Emphasizing the ongoing engagements, the Commission emphasized that CETAG should terminate its industrial action.

According to the NLC, prior to the scheduled hearing, CETAG's leadership communicated to the Commission that they had no issues with the NLC and therefore wouldn't be appearing before it.

Beginning August 1, 2023, the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana initiated an indefinite industrial strike due to the government's failure to implement the "negotiated" conditions of service for their members.

In 2021, CETAG and the Government, facilitated by the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), engaged in prolonged negotiations over fresh terms of service for CETAG members.

This compelled the National Labour Commission (NLC) to step in with Compulsory Arbitration following CETAG's strike in January 2023.

At the culmination of the Compulsory Arbitration, the NLC issued an Arbitral Award Order on May 2, 2023, granting CETAG members new conditions of service effective from January 1, 2023.

The Association affirmed that after the NLC's Compulsory Arbitral Award, the parties officially endorsed the negotiation agreement, which the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) conveyed to the Ministry of Finance (MoF) on May 26, 2023, for approval and implementation.

They asserted that despite their letters to the Ministry requesting immediate implementation of the negotiated terms, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) did not act on the FWSC's letter along with the NLC's Arbitral Orders.

In response to the apparent inaction, the Association's members chose to withdraw their services from all 46 Colleges of Education, effective Monday, July 31, 2023, if the government did not honor the mutually agreed-upon negotiations.