GNAT URGES GOVERNMENT TO IMPLEMENT COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT (PAGE 11, APRIL 26, 2010)

Members of the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regional Council of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) have reminded the government about the negotiated collective agreement signed between the two parties on December 31, 2009, regarding the payment of some allowances to members of the association.
According to the council members, the government had cheated them for far too long but said they neither wanted any disruption of the academic calendar nor any disturbance of the national agenda of development.
The Vice Chairman of the council, Mr Johnson Addae- Poku, who read a brief statement at a press conference at the GNAT Hall in Sunyani declared, ‘‘it is our conviction that, should the government fail to implement those negotiated agreements, it would lead to the adoption of a decision that would mar the peaceful industrial atmosphere we are all enjoying’’.
The council members explained that, the Standing Joint Negotiating Committee of the Ghana Education Service (GES), representing GNAT / the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), signed an agreement to the effect that, professional allowance for all certificate teachers, constituting 15 per cent of their monthly gross salary, would be paid to deserving teachers ,with effect from January, in April this year.
Mr Addae- Poku said the parties agreed that, difficult / deprived area allowance of 20 per cent of monthly gross salary would be paid, while an agreement was again reached for the payment of 10 per cent of gross monthly salary to teachers who are trained and were teaching Mathematics, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), as well as Technical and Vocational and Science, but pointed out that, nothing concrete had come out so far.
‘‘Looking at the mood of teachers, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to restrain them from taking any action to get what is due them once the date expires without getting their demands being met, and we note with dissatisfaction, the fact that issues affecting teachers have been swept under the carpet for far too long’’, he observed.