A meeting held between the executives of the Colleges of Education Tutors Association of Ghana (CETAG) and officials of the Ministry Finance over unpaid salary arrears of tutors has ended inconclusively.
The meeting, which was chaired by the Deputy Minister of Finance, Abena Osei Asare, was held to convince the tutors to go back to the classroom to enable the ministry work to pay the arrears.
But the tutors demanded a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by both sides.
The deputy minister and her team couldn’t provide them with the MoU, which compelled the tutors to continue the strike, which began this month.
According to the tutors, although colleges of education in the country had been converted to tertiary institutions on 1st January, 2016, their salaries have remained the same after job rationalization by the Fair Wages and Salary Commission (FWSC).
According to them, up to date, the Ministry of Finance has failed to pay them their salary arrears.
According to the National Secretary of CETAG, Emmanuel Obeng-Himah, who spoke to DAILY GUIDE on the phone, the Ministry of Finance, has been given directive by the National Labour Commission to pay the arrears to over 2,200 tutors in 38 colleges of education in the country but the Ministry has consistently failed to do so.
According to him, the Labour Commission gave the MoF a two-week ultimatum to come out with a payment plan but to date nothing has been done about it.
A subsequent reminder from the NLC to Ministry was again ignored.
He said Ms Osei Asare explained at the meeting that the Controller and Accountant General’s Department had agreed to furnish her outfit with particulars of all tutors to crosscheck from the Audit Service before payment is effected.
“She pleaded with us to go back to the classroom whilst the ministry continues with the process but we declined the verbal offer and demanded a written document to be signed as evidence. The deputy minister said she would have to confer with her superiors, he stated.
CETAG therefore asked all members in the colleges to continue with the strike indefinitely.
Mr Obeng-Himah explained that the book and research allowances and market premium need to be addressed by the stakeholders.
When DAILY GUIDE visited the various campuses of colleges of education, particularly in the Brong Ahafo Region, most students were loitering while others were undertaking their private studies.
From Daniel Y Dayee, Sunyani