Northern Region NAGRAT To Embark On Strike

Beginning Monday March 18, 2013, members of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) would embark upon a nationwide sit-down strike following government’s failure to address their longstanding grievances.    

According to the Northern Regional chapter of NAGRAT, members of the Association countrywide were supposed to have embarked on a strike action on January 25, 2013 but a swift intervention from the offices of the Chief of Staff and Executive Secretary to the President of the Republic on January 22, 2013 for discussions on their concerns averted the strike at the time. 

Addressing a crunch press conference in Tamale at the weekend, Northern Regional Chairman of NAGRAT Abdul-Somed Mustapha Mustak, explained that at that meeting at the seat of government in January, government asked NAGRAT to put on hold any intentions of industrial action so as to enable it constitute a working group that would resolve all the issues within six weeks, which it complied. 

NAGRAT was also asked to send nominees to serve on the working group and the names of the nominees were submitted to government, he said, adding that on February 7, 2013, National officers of the Association met the Chief of Staff again on the unresolved concerns. “A firm promise was made to the effect that the working group would be commissioned on February 12, 2013 at 2:00pm”, he disclosed.

According to Mr. Mustak, at the time of the press conference, the six weeks requested by government to address the concerns of graduate teachers had elapsed and the working group had neither been constituted nor commissioned.

He observed that, it was abundantly clear that government had no intention to resolve the concerns of NAGRAT even though the Association had tried all along to use ‘diplomacy and dialogue’ to resolve the issues. Government, he stated, had consequently demonstrated bad faith and non-commitment to resolving their concerns and the longer the issues linger on, the more restless their members became.

Mr. Mustak mentioned the non-negotiation of categories 2 and 3 allowances for teachers; unilateral freezing of annual incremental credits for teachers; non-payment of vehicle maintenance allowances; and refusal of Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) to renegotiate Retention Premium for teachers.

The rest include Delays in the promotion of teachers; the unilateral decision of the Ghana Education Service to freeze the placement of teachers with additional responsibilities; Failure of the Ghana Education Service management to negotiate allowances for the supervision and invigilation of examination conducted by the West African Examination Council (WAEC); and Non-generation of pay slips.

Thus, the Northern Regional Chairman of NAGRAT declared an indefinite strike action following a similar one at the national level starting from Monday March 18, 2013 saying “by this declaration, all members of the Association are directed to stay away from all teaching and co-curricular duties until these demands are met”.

He also, appealed to all headmasters and directors of education not to stand in the way of the teachers serving under them as they embarked on this necessary action to press home the unaddressed concerns.