Government urged to hold consultations with educational unions

Ho, April 12, GNA- Mr Dan Ayim, General Secretary of the Teachers and Education Workers Union (TEWU) has called on government to hold consultations with all Unions in the education sector on the proposed restructuring of the Ghana Education Service as part of the education reforms.
Mr Ayim said such consultation was necessary to iron out concerns of the unions; TEWU, Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) on the matter to forestall any hiccups in the exercise.
He was addressing the Volta Regional Delegates Conference of the Union in Ho on Thursday.
Mr Ayim said TEWU was therefore looking forward to receiving government's response to a letter it sent them on the matter about six months ago.
He hinted that there were several issues in the proposed restructuring and decentralization in the GES that constituted "recipes for industrial action".
On TEWU's relationship with the Ghana Education Service, Mr Ayim said the relationship "has been rather frustrating".
He mentioned the issues in contention as failure to conclude negotiations to review the conditions of service for non-teaching staff since 2001.
Also the Provident Fund Scheme, non-payment of responsibility allowances in arrears since 1999, revised scheme of service, teachers in non-teaching jobs and decentralization of education.
Regarding the development of the proposed comprehensive pay roll structure in the public sector, Mr Ayim assured that all labour groups in the country have been holding joint consultations with government and consultants on the exercise.
This he said was "to ensure that mistakes that surrounded the implementation of the Ghana Universal Salary Structure are not repeated in the new pay regime".
Mr Ayim said there could be no full production from frustrated workers who lacked training and retraining and have to strain themselves under very poor working conditions.
Mr Pobee Asomaning Darku, Volta Regional GNAT Secretary and Mr Michael Doe, Volta Regional Chairman of TEWU both urged workers in the public sector to provide accurate responses to the questionnaire to enable consultants evaluate their jobs properly for better remuneration.
Mr Doe said non-teaching staff of the GES both in the offices and other departments of the service were over stretched daily and yet received slave wages for their efforts.
He said it was therefore important that they took the evaluation seriously to avoid the pitfalls that went into evaluations in determining pay levels under the GUSS.
Mr Maxwell Mireku, Volta Regional Secretary of the GTUC urged all workers unions to co-operate for a common position on issues to secure the welfare of their members in a regime of plurality of unions.
Mr Kwasi Hobenu, Acting Volta Regional Director of Education called for unity between teaching and non-teaching staff of the GES to enable them to work towards the success of the education sector.
"We have only one country that demands our sacrifices to flourish", he said.

12 April 07