TEWU threatens strike over discrimination against non-teaching staff

The Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) has threatened to begin an indefinite strike, next week, if the government fails to address issues of discrimination against non- teaching staff in the Ghana Education Service (GES) and Colleges of Education.

The union said it had been compelled to take the action following the delay by the government and agencies in the education sector to address their concerns, including work overload and emoluments, communicated to them through various petitions since August, last year.

This was contained in a statement signed and issued by Mark Dankyira Korankye, the Acting General Secretary of TEWU.

It said TEWU’s petition to the Ministers of Education, Employment and Labour Relations on the matter fell on deaf ears as nothing had been done to address it.

The statement said the union was concerned about the situation where a number of professional teachers were deserting the classrooms where their services were urgently needed to take up the jobs of non-teaching staff of GES.

It described as unacceptable for Municipal, District and Regional Directors to create positions such as Personnel I and Personnel II and transfer teachers from the classroom to occupy such positions, while the non-teaching staff were not considered.

The union identified undue delay in the release of the Tier Two Pension Fund to the GES Occupational Pension Scheme and urged timely payment of the fund beneficiaries as the first  batch of beneficiaries of the lump sum pension are due for retirement in January 2020.

“There is growing impatience among our members in the Colleges of Education since their issues have not been given any attention. We therefore wish to request the National Council for Tertiary Education to expedite action on these matters for an immediate resolution,” the statement said.

The statement said “It is the expectation of TEWU that by the close of next month,  the government and its agencies, particularly the Ghana Education Service, National Council for Tertiary Education, the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations,  the Ministry of Education, the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) will help resolve the concerns of the non-teaching staff and ensure that their concerns receive proactive attention, to prevent any industrial action from TEWU which can be avoided in the first place.”

“It is TEWU’s position that the Human Resource Directorate of the Ghana Education Service should immediately stop this discrimination and ensure that professional teachers are not made to take up non-teaching jobs where there are already qualified people amongst our members who have 1st and 2nd degrees and during the migration from the Ghana Education Service to tertiary status have not been properly given the right grading and placement to reflect the colleges new tertiary outlook,” the statement said.

BY TIMES REPORTER