The striking teacher unions have ended their industrial action after the National Labour Commission (NLC) secured a restraining order from the court against the union on Friday, November 11.
President of the Ghana National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) Angel Carbonou told journalists on Friday, November 11 that “we can’t disrespect the court order. To that end, we are telling all our members to resume work on Monday. Every teacher should go to work on Monday.”
“We are law-abiding citizens, we have decided to obey the orders of the court and have asked our members to call off the strike and to go back to the classrooms, and also ensure that the directive that the Labour Commission is giving that we engage the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relation and report to the Labour Commission on the 16th on the issues that led to the strike in the first place, we are determined to do that in our engagement with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Education,” he stressed
The NLC dragged NAGRAT, the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT) to court for their inability to give ears to its order to return to the classrooms while their discussions with the government on what triggered their industrial action continue.
On Monday, November 7 the leadership of the unions questioned their members to continue resting at home because their meeting with the government didn’t yield positive results.
President of the GNAT, Rev Isaac Owusu indicated that after the maiden day of the meeting on Monday, November 7 that “I can tell you on authority that so far so good we have had a very constructive meeting. The parties have agreed to adjourn and resume tomorrow at 2 PM to continue with the deliberations.
“We have not ended the meeting, the agreement here is that the two parties have agreed that we should adjourn and resume tomorrow at 2 PM.”
The Labour Court 2, presided over by Justice Ananda Aikins, detailed its ruling on the situation at hand and asked them to go back to the classroom.
GNAT, NAGRAT and CCT declared the strike over the appointment of Dr Eric Nkansah as the new Director General of Ghana Education (GES) who they claimed he’s a banker without a teaching background.
They declared the industrial action on Friday, November 4.
By Lawrence Odoom