Government has been unfair to teachers – NPP

The New Patriotic Party has sympathized with teachers over their grievances occasioned by the anomalies in their single spine pay policy.

According to a statement issued by Nana Akomea, Director of Communications of the party, the teachers’ agitations have exposed the government’s bad faith for teachers.

“Teachers have been migrated onto the Single Spine Salary Structure without any allowances.

“The promised allowances never came. Even the existing professional allowance is in dispute!”

Below is the full text of NPP’s statement

GOVERNMENT SHOULD LIVE UP TO ITS PROMISES TO TEACHERS

The NPP has noted with great concern the continuing mass demonstration/agitation/strikes by teachers all over the country.

The NPP solidarizes with the teachers over their plight.

The NDC Government has been grossly unfair and shown very bad faith to teachers over their migration onto the Single Spine Salary Structure.

This is shocking because of the numerous promises made by the NDC to teachers before and after it came into government.

On June 4 2007 Daily Graphic reported Candidate Mills as promising that quality Education & Teachers welfare will be his priority, at an address at the Central University College.

On September 11 2007, GNA reported Candidate Mills promising at Agona Nyakrom that teachers will have better conditions of service under his government.

The NDC 2008 manifesto promised that the NDC will improve the general conditions of teachers through competitive salaries, pay certificated teachers a professional allowance, and pay hardship allowances among others.

At his inaugural address on 7th January 2009, President Mills stated “we will ensure all allowance promised to teachers are paid to them”. In his 2010 State of the Nations address, President Mills stated “at the end of this year, I expect GNAT, NAGRAT and UTAG to make separate pronouncements on whether the lot of teachers has improved under our administration or not”. Without any mention of POTAG.

In the 2011 State of the Nation address, President Mills said “government will continue to provide incentives and motivations packages for teachers”.

More than two years after the NDC came into government, the Single Spine Salary Structure gave government an unique opportunity to live up to its promises to teachers.

Sadly, government has not lived up to its promises and the expectations of teachers.

Teachers have been migrated onto the Single Spine Salary Structure without any allowances.

The promised allowances never came. Even the existing professional allowance is in dispute!

As if that is not enough betrayal of teachers, the migration has also been done without proper duty of care.

The calculations have been so haphazard that a lot of teachers are actually worse off, than they were before the single spine migration.

As a result of these broken promises and lack of due care, our gallant teachers are today up in arms in agitations/demonstrations over the past few days. To them, the single spine has become the single swine and the better Ghana has become a bitter Ghana.

President Mills sought to give further assurances on 6th March to our teachers, but teachers seem to be really tired of the promises and are continuing with their agitations all over the country.

The situation threatens to blow into full scale national strike by teachers.

The NPP, as afore-mentioned, solidarizes with our teachers, and the big betrayal they feel on the migration onto the Single Spine Salary Structure.

We however call on our teachers to exercise restraint so that the innocent school children are not deprived of teaching and learning through no fault of theirs.

We call on government to exercise good faith in the negotiations with teachers, to reach an agreement over their allowances, and to show more duty of care in the migration onto the Single Spine.

We also call on the government to implement the migration onto the spine in a holistic manner by securing the buy in of all public sector employees before implementation so that the nation can be spared the current situation with our teachers.

The Single Spine implementation also should also not go the way of government by ration, the popularly called “tot” by “tot” treatment that has characterized the Mills-Mahama government since it took office with prevalence recently.

Signed: Nana Akomea