Stop "undermining" Fair Wages CEO - Mahama told

The Head of the Labour Rights Institute, Mr Muhammed Afum has told XYZ News that President John Mahama’s “interference” in the Teachers’ strike "undermined" the authority of the Chief Executive Officer of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), Mr George Smith Graham.

“If I were Smith Graham, I would have resigned because I believe that what has happened is a serious [act of] undermining my authority”, Mr Muhammed Afum advised.

The FWSC is the mandated body that negotiates, on behalf of the government, with Labour unions concerning salaries and conditions of service.

Mr Afum therefore believes that the meeting with the agitated Teachers by the President amounted to a usurpation of the mandate of the FWSC.

He said: “After inviting them and giving them assurances, you have sent them back to the Fair Wages Commission to go and negotiate”.

He met the leaders of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) at the Flagstaff House to get them to suspend the strike.

The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) and the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) simultaneously issued statements on Wednesday March, 27, 2013 and threatened strikes from next week if the government failed to address their concerns pending before the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC).

Their announcement came just a day after GNAT and NAGRAT called off their strike following the president’s meeting with them at the Flagstaff House on Monday March, 25, 2013.

The Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) which also declared strike alongside the Teachers also suspended its action on Wednesday March, 27, 2013, the same day that the GMA and UTAG threatened their strikes.

Another labour Consultant, Mr Senyo Adjabeng had blamed President John Mahama’s intervention in the Teachers’ strike, for the current streak of strikes threatened by other labour unions.

Mr Adjabeng told XYZ News in an interview that: “When central governments start to wade in labour matters then it creates confusion in the whole system of resolving the issues, so that is why all other unions are coming up and they will continue to come up until [the president] has met all of them and…resolved all their issues,” he asserted.