The General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Thomas Tanko Musah, has called on the government to authorise the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department to pay promoted teachers their appropriate salaries.

According to him, the teacher unions were assured during negotiations that promoted teachers would not be required to submit additional documents before their salary adjustments were effected.

Speaking in an interview on Sunday, October 4, Mr Tanko Musah said that assurance had, however, not been implemented.

He said that once the government had authorised the payment of the appropriate salaries, it was responsible for ensuring that the funds were paid to the affected teachers.

“If somebody has worked and the person is going to Controller to go and take his salary and the person who is supposed to pay my salary is telling me that he will not give it to me, then my employer is under obligation and he owes me the duty of care to order that person, authorise and instruct him that look the money I gave you to give to my employees, give it to them,” Mr Tanko Musah stated.

He said the unions had entered negotiations with the government in good faith and that the agreed arrangements had not been implemented.

“We don’t mean harm. We went for a meeting to negotiate. They themselves read the text out that nobody should submit any document and Controller was instructed to go and pay the thing automatically to teachers and you have not done it, is it our making?” he said.

Mr Tanko Musah stressed that teachers are employees of the government and not the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department, which only handles the payment of their salaries on behalf of the state.

“We didn’t work for Controller, we work for Government but government decided that the salaries that we will take should go through Controller,” he noted.

He maintained that the unions’ concerns were with the government over the implementation of the agreed salary payments for newly promoted teachers, rather than the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department, which only processes their salaries.

“We did not work for Controller and if there is anything, we have an issue with our employer (Government) and that is where we are now,” he said.

Strike

Pre-tertiary teacher unions in Ghana, including GNAT, the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Pre-Tertiary Teachers Association of Ghana (PRETAG), declared a nationwide strike from Friday, September 25.

Their concerns include the failure to automatically place promoted teachers on their correct salary levels, delays in processing salary arrears and adjustments for affected teachers, and the non-implementation of the 20% Deprived Area Allowance.

The unions have also raised concerns over expired conditions of service and collective agreements.

Meanwhile, Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu and Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson have urged the unions to call off the industrial action, committing to resolve issues relating to promotion payments and schedule further negotiations with the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC).

The unions, however, remain adamant and have instructed their members to stay off work until the new salaries and arrears have been paid.