GNAT appeals to govt to honour agreements

Ho, Nov 16, GNA - Mr Veni Demanya, the Volta Regional Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), has appealed to the government to refrain from varying agreements reached with workers on labour issues.

He said attempts by the government to implement its own decisions other than those agreed on at the negotiating table was creating a credibility problem for workers' representatives. Mr Demanya was speaking to the Ghana News Agency on Monday on the current strike action by some teachers in the Volta Region. He said where the government was unable to implement deals negotiated, it was important that it called workers' representatives back to the negotiating table and in good time to enable them to get the message across to those they represent.

Mr Demanya said the current strike action by teachers was a result of the inability of the government to pay increments as reported to the teachers by their representatives.

He said GNAT did not sanction the strike and that the association was doing all it could to convince the teachers to go back to the classroom.

Teachers dropped their chalks and stayed home when negotiated pay increment and allowances did not reflect in their bank accounts at the close of October.

It is alleged the striking teachers are organizing classes in some schools in the Ho Municipality for groups of their own pupils for fees ranging between 10,000 and 50,000 cedis.