Teacher unions call off strike after court order

The three striking teacher unions; the Ghana National Association of Teachers, the National Association of Graduate Teachers and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers have called off their strike.

This follows an order by the High Court after the National Labour Commission secured a 10-day injunction on the strike.

The teachers are expected to resume the strike wen the injunction elapses.

The unions are striking in protest of the non-payment of arrears but the unions say the decision to adhere to the court order follows advice from their lawyers.

“We are law-abiding citizens… though we are not happy with the development, we are respecting the order of the court,” the deputy General Secretary of GNAT, Daniel Addafu, said to Otec News.

The Ministry of Education commended the NLC for going to court to secure an order to restrain the striking teachers from continuing with their action.

But the president of NAGRAT, Angel Carbonu, said the unions it will no longer engage with the NLC because of the court order.

“That engagement cannot continue because they have rendered themselves impotent of continuing with any engagement because they have gone to court to seek a court order to compel us [to halt our strike]. [We thought they should have] compelled us with the statutes that established them.”

The NLC had earlier declared the strike illegal saying: “the Commission in the exercise of the authority conferred on it by Section 139 (1)(b) of Act 651 finds the Associations’ action in violation of Act 651 and therefore the ongoing strike of the Unions is illegal.”

But this declaration was ignored by unions.

The Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Ministry of Education in separate press releases also described the action as baseless, illegal and shocking.

Some schools still closed

Despite the court order ending the strike to return to the classrooms, academic activities have still not commenced in some schools in the Ashanti Region although some teachers are present.

Some pupils were engaging in extra-curricula activities while others had returned to their homes.

Also, in the Northern Region, most public schools Citi News visited were under lock and key.

Source: Ghana/otecfghana.com