The unions called a strike in protest to the government’s failure to address pension concerns and the claimed arbitrary termination of overtime payments.
Ofosu Asamoah, the NLC’s Executive Secretary, told media following a meeting with the unions in Accra on Wednesday that the unions should call off the strike and talk with the government to resolve their issues.
He stated that these unions could not legally negotiate while still on strike. Mr. Asamoah also stated that the government was willing to engage with the unions, and that he expected they would follow the mandate.
“By law, if you are still on the strike, you can’t negotiate. The law frowns on it. You can’t even wear red bands. It is intimidating. You brought up three issues, and two have been solved. The first one, your allowances have been resolved, the UMAT and the UCC have been solved. The third one, which is in issue, the party against whom you are says I am guilty; however, let’s sit down and know how to correct it,” Mr. Asamoah stated.
Mark Korankye, General Secretary of the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) of the TUC, stated that the unions will speak with their members before making a final decision.
“NLC has given directives that the Ministry of Finance should meet with us to discuss and resolve the matter by the 1st of February. There are also issues that GTEC has to also resolve as far as overtime and other issues are also concerned. So they have also been directed to, as a matter of urgency, get this matter resolved. To the unions, the Commission says call off your strike.”
“Before we can make any pronouncement on that, since we are only representatives here, we have to go and confirm with our rank and file and other leaders who are not here. So we are going to call a meeting of our members probably tomorrow or Friday, and then we will discuss what transpired here,” he added.
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