The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has rejected the Ghana Education Service’s (GES) proposal to take 10% of the salaries of teachers and employees living in government bungalows as rent costs.
On March 11, the GES in Western Region revealed a proposal to extract 10% of wages from inhabitants of government bungalows as rent charges.
According to the GES circular, the deductions will take effect on March 1, 2022.
However, in response to the GES directive in Western Region, GNAT stated that “any attempt to implement this would be fiercely resisted, and the industrial peace we are enjoying on the educational front could be jeopardized.”
The decision, according to the Association, is disappointing and goes against the spirit and letter of a collective agreement signed by GES and teacher unions in August 2020.
“For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to remind the Ghana Education Service of Section 21(i) of the Collective Agreement, 2009 which deals with Staff Accommodation and states, without equivocation, that Headmasters, Assistant Headmasters, Senior Housemasters, Housemasters, Principals, Vice Principals, Headteachers, Assistant Headteachers, Frontline ADs and Guidance and Counselling Officers in 2nd Cycle institutions shall be provided with free residential accommodation (emphasised), and that, where there is no residential accommodation, the Service shall be responsible for the rents of the officer(s) concerned. The same shall apply to Directors at the District, Regional/Divisional levels,” GNAT said in a statement.
GNAT in furtherance of its resistance drew the attention of the GES to section 19 of the Collective Agreement in August 2020 on staff accommodation which states that “accommodation may be provided for the following category of staff: Headmasters, Assistant Headmasters, Senior Housemasters, Housemasters, Principals, Vice Principals, Headteachers, Assistant Headteachers, Frontline Deputy Directors and Guidance and Counselling Officers and Chaplains and Imams in Second Cycle Institutions”.
The Association warned that if the GES plans to violate the terms of the 2020 Collective Agreement, it would fail since doing so would constitute a “breach of Union trust” and a “unfair labor decision.”
According to the 2019 Auditor-report, General’s there are 59 renters who have failed on the 10% rent payment at the Ghana Education Service (GES).
Nine of the defaulters are from the GES Headquarters, five from the GES’s Eastern Regional Education Office, and 45 from the District Education Office in Donkorkrom.
According to the report, the Ghana Education Service owes a total of GH111,032.25 in arrears as of 2019.
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SOURCE: myjoyonline
