This comes after the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) instructed the Controller and Accountant General’s Department to suspend the July 2024 salaries for all teaching staff of CETAG except the College Principals.
In a letter to the Accountant General’s Department dated Monday, July 22, 2024, GTEC stated at the instance of the Minister of Education on the non-adherence of CETAG members to call off an illegal strike from June 2024, you are by this letter requested to stop the salaries of all teaching staff of the Colleges of Education (CETAG) except for the College Principals for July 2024.
By this letter, College Principals are not to validate the July 2024 salaries of all teaching staff.
CETAG in response to this directive in a statement on Tuesday, July 23, 2024, noted that it is withdrawing all of its services following the directive from the Minister of Education.
It said in an emergency meeting of the National Council, on July 23, 2024, the council members took a unanimous decision to withdraw all our services including attendance to meetings, congregation ceremonies and provision of academic counselling services as well as supervision of students in the halls of residence with immediate effect until further notice.
The association noted that it had referred the illegal directive to freeze their July salaries to their lawyers for the necessary actions.
CETAG strike
The strike started on Friday, June 14, 2024, due to the government's delay in implementing the NLC's Arbitral Award Orders and negotiated service conditions.
CETAG's demands include the payment of one month's salary to each member for additional duties performed in 2022 and applying agreed rates of allowances payable to public universities to deserving CETAG members.
In a statement, CETAG leadership said the strike aims to pressure the government to fulfil these commitments.
CETAG emphasised that the strike is intended to safeguard the economic rights of its members as outlined in Article 24(1) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana and Section 10(a) and (b) of the Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651).
It highlighted the importance of upholding these legal and constitutional protections. CETAG, however, urged its members to withdraw.