The College of Education Teachers’ Association of Ghana (CETAG) is set to resume its strike action today, January 6, 2023.

The resumption of the strike is due to the stakeholders' lackadaisical attitude towards meeting their over two-year demands, the Association revealed in a release dated January 5, 2023.

“Following a meeting held between the Government Team and CETAG on January 4, 2023, over the outstanding issues of CETAG, the National Council of CETAG met to evaluate what transpired and concluded that the strike action, which was suspended on December 17, 2022, shall resume on Friday, January 6, 2023, if the two-day grace period given to the Minister expires without a resolution of the outstanding issues,” a part of the statement read.

CETAG has embarked on several strike actions on a number of occasions over the “non-finalization of Conditions of Service (CoS) negotiations," the unilateral determination of April 2023 by the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) as the effective date for placing First Degree Holders of CENTSAG on 17H on the SSSS, and the undue delay by the Ministry of Education in responding to their request for payment of compensation, among others.

The very recent strike action was announced on November 14, 2022, following delays by the government.

CETAG expressed their displeasure over the Education Minister's undue delay in meeting the two-week ultimatum to address their grievances, adding that the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) did not seek a financial mandate from the Finance Ministry for the three outstanding generic allowances.

Further, it rejected the effective date for the conditions of service negotiated in August 2021, which were to take effect in January 2023.

“The effective date of January 2023 that the government team wants to unilaterally impose on CETAG instead of the mutually agreed effective date of January 2022 is totally unacceptable,” they added.

CETAG no longer trusts the assurances given to it by stakeholders since all previous assurances saw no fruition.

The recent release also stated that "Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) failed to disclose to CETAG the amount it is proposing to be paid for all-year-round work compensation and the date on which it will pay it."

It will be recalled that on December 17, 2022, CETAG called off its five-week industrial action over their conditions of service after 19 out of the 35 colleges voted in support to call off their strike in exchange for an assurance from the Education Minister that their concerns would be addressed within two weeks of suspension.

Source: The Independent Ghana