GTEC has defended its decision to instruct the Controller and Accountant General to withhold the July salaries of CETAG members.
During a news conference in Kumasi on Monday, July 22, CETAG warned it would resist any unlawful salary freezes and vowed to continue its indefinite strike until the government implements their arbitral award and service conditions.
The strike, which began last month in response to the government’s failure to implement the agreed terms, has led to students leaving campuses at all 46 colleges of education nationwide.
In response, Prof. Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai, Director General of GTEC, appealed to the striking teachers to return to their classrooms and assured them that the government is working to fulfill CETAG’s demands.
“Well, I think it’s based on logic, as you’re aware, CETAG has not been in the classroom since June 14. Today is July 23, that is more than a month and in this country, we use what we call a salary. You need to be validated before you are paid, and that validation is informed by your presence at your workplace.
“So by logic, it means that they cannot be validated. So the reason why they are not being paid their July salary is because they are not at post and it’s a very simple, straightforward answer. So I want to use this podium or this medium to retreat the call on CETAG for them to call off their strike.
“The tiniest issue had to be, for them, the discrimination in terms of migration, where some will be migrated onto their university scheme of service whilst others will stay on the harmonised scheme of service of the colleges of education.
“This is not going to happen, all staff and faculty are going to be migrated onto the scheme of service of their affiliate universities.”
