NAGRAT Serves Strike Notice

THE NATIONAL Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) has served an April 30 ultimatum to the government to fulfill its promises to Ghanaian teachers or face their wrath, apparently in the form of a strike action. According to NAGRAT, if by the set date nothing positive had been heard from the government, the association would humbly and respectfully advise itself. Addressing the media yesterday in Sunyani, the Brong- Ahafo Regional Council of NAGRAT said the association had tried all along to use diplomacy and dialogue to resolve the issues affecting teachers, but government had consistently demonstrated bad faith and non-commitment to resolving the challenges saying, �It is abundantly clear that government has no intensions to resolve the concerns. The longer the issues linger, the more restless our members become.� NAGRAT noted with pain that the indefinite strike action that was declared on March 18, 2013 by the association was revoked with the hope that all their concerns were going to receive prompt response. However, more than a year down the lane, President John Mahama, whose intervention caused the association to call off the said strike action, had failed to fulfill the promises he made to the teachers. �The regional council of NAGRAT-B/A is compelled to organise this press conference to bring to light for yet another time, unresolved concerns of the association stemming from lack of interest on the part of our employer, the Ghana Education Service (GES), the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) and for that matter, government of Ghana to address them,� the Regional Chairman of NAGRAT, Jacob Anaba, told the media. Some of the issues that Mr. Anaba said needed immediate attention included the failure of government to transfer the contributions of GES employee�s share of the pension contributions into the third-tier or occupational Pension Scheme to be managed by private fund managers and custodians as prescribed by the New Pension Regulation. NAGRAT is also protesting against government�s directive that no employee would be paid salaries in arrears over three months, regardless of the number of years that the worker would work. This directive, NAGRAT stated, had affected new recruits, promotions and reactivation of staff, stating that it is counter-productive and against the right of workers. NAGRAT has also kicked against the non-payment of incremental credit arrears to teachers for the past three years as well as the non-payment of vehicle maintenance allowances for about two years now. The association expressed regret about the unilateral decision of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) to increase the allowances to be paid to supervisors and invigilators by 20 percent.