The strike action directed by teacher unions to their members over salary arrears which were not generated by the current government has entered a second day despite calls to return to the classrooms.
The Ghana Education Service (GES) has described the strike action by the teachers as illegal and a clear case of betrayal, urging the teacher unions to rescind their decision and rather adhere to the agreed principles to resolve the case.
According to the GES, it has been in constant negotiations with the teacher unions for sometime now to help address salary arrears of some teachers which were accumulated from 2012 to 2016 when Mr. Mahama and his NDC administration were in power.
The teacher unions last week asked their members to stay away from school because, according to them, salary arrears between 2012 and 2016 are still outstanding.
The Director-General of the GES, Prof. Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, said the data of the supposed teachers, whose arrears have not been paid, was full of inconsistencies and clear errors.
He said on December 2, 2019, during a meeting between the GES and the teacher unions, it was unanimously agreed that all the anomalies in the data should be rectified before payment was made by Christmas.
The GES said it was, therefore, shocked to learn three days later that the same teachers unions had made a sharp U-turn and declared their intention to embark on a strike action on December 9, 2019, which is unjustifiable.
“At the meeting, management of the GES and the unions agreed that the data should be vetted and only those eligible for payment should be paid the right amounts,” the GES Director General pointed out.
“We also agreed that all efforts were to be made to finish the vetting and the personnel involved paid the right amounts by Christmas. We also agreed that the earlier indicated deadline of December 5, 2019 cannot be realistic,” he added.
Prof. Opoku-Amankwa said initially the number of GES staff on the legacy arrears from 2012 to 2016 was 120,232 and out of that 87,556, representing 95 per cent have their salary arrears paid in full after a critical look to establish who really deserved to be paid arrears.
He said efforts were being made to settle the remaining few number of teachers, who are owed, on November 9, 2019 when the GES received another set of data from the Controller and Accountant General, covering 1,847 personnel, who were to be paid salary arrears.
He said the new set of data was critically examined and it became clear that the payment would have led to an excess payment of GH¢11,300,376, adding that some of the names had no personal records with the GES from 2012 to 2014, among other anomalies.
He indicated that it is the view of GES management that public funds cannot be dissipated to underserved persons and is working hard to clean the data to ensure that only qualified persons are paid “by the Christmas break as agreed with the union leaders during a meeting on December 2, 2019.”
“Management wishes to indicate that the strike action cannot be legitimate, especially of personnel, who are not owed any arrears of salary,” he said, urging teachers to remain calm and go about their normal duties as efforts are being made to effect the payment to only deserving staff soon.
Source: Daily Guide
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. |
@WHOEVER IS REPLYING TEACHER SANDY. STOP EXPLAINING SHE REALLY UNDERSTANDS WHAT YOU GUYS MEANT BY MAHAMA ARREARS THATS WHY SHE IS SAYING SHE WILL HELP IN BRINGING MAHAMA BACK FOR HIM TO PAY THEM IF THE REASON WHY THEY BROUGHT YOU INTO POWER IS TO KEEP REFERRING WHAT MAHAMA DID THEN IT MEANS YOU CANT DO THE WORK AND U USE LESS TO BE IN POWER. IN FACT ANY NPP MEMEBER IS SAYING THE SAME THING AND I DONT KNOW WHO STU PI DLY PUT THE JUSTIFICATION MESSAGE IN THEIR HEAD. PLEASE IS A DISGRACE
You are not ashamed of yourself and your reasoning is even below a milking baby. Mahama employed you, you worked for months without pay, he calls you back and recalled your appointment letters, squashing all the months you have laboured without pay and only gave you Three (3) months’ pay in its stead till he was booted out. Left with Mahama, he had forgotten you because, there was no way he could have gotten the money to pay you till Jesus comes. However, President Akufu Addo comes and said he will not cheat Ghanaians like that. Hence, he started paying and you have now turned around to go on strike, to compel him to pay you quicker than his resources. Oh! How ungrateful you are! to worsen matters, you are now saying that you'll go and bring Mahama back, to do what? To now put pepper in your eyes? I presume you are not a teacher. But if you are, what are you then teaching these children? If you are a teacher and you are reasoning this way what good can come from our children? No wonder! Let’s weep for mother Ghana. Let’s fast and pray for such hypocrites to turn from such lifestyle.
Mahama Arrears???? Hmmm sit down and wait. we will vote against Akuffo Addo tena ho wai
Am sad some NPP members are behaving this way. Disappointing government. NPP was voted into power in oder to correct past government mistakes as they promised, so why are you still referring to Mahama. What a government. Let vote NPP out so Mahama will come back and pay. naive government.
IF ITS CALLED MAHAMA ARREARS THEN WE HAVE TO VOTE FOR MAHAMA TO COME BACK AND PAY US. WHICH KIND OF GOVERNMENT DO WE HAVE THESE DAYS. SO IF NANA IS NO MORE IN POWER AND THERE IS ANY ARREARS IT SHOULD ALSO BE CALLED NANA arrears. WE WILL NOT GO BACK UNTIL WE ARE PAID WE DON'T CARE IF IT WILL TAKE US TO VOTE FOR MAHAMA TO COME AND PAY US WE WILL.