TEWU members withdraw services

The Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) of Ghana Trades Union Congress said on Thursday that all its members had withdrawn their services because the union’s grievances had not been resolved.

This is inspite of legal options adopted to seek redress since two years ago, a statement signed by Mr Raph A. Apaaya and Mr Peter K. Lumor, General Secretary and Chairman of TEWU respectively, said.

It said members of the union would resume work after their concerns were addressed.

These include non implementation of Ghana Education Service (GES) Collective Bargaining Agreement, a freeze on annual increment for the staff of GES since 2010, non payment of vehicle maintenance allowance for those who qualify since 2009, delay in resolving outstanding issues relating to promotions and non payment of overtime to security staff.

The statement said on November 21, 2012, TEWU wrote to the National Labour Commission (NLC) about the unfair treatment of concerns raised and appealed to the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) to resume negotiations on those concerns.

On the letter the NLC wrote to the FWSC on November 26, 2012, giving it seven working days to respond to the complaints, it said; “sadly the FWSC has not responded to the letters”.

It said up to date the union had not received any response from either the FWSC or NLC saying; “TEWU expresses its displeasure about the way issues concerning its members in the GES are treated with contempt”.

The statement said on March 15, 2013, the government organised labour held a meeting during which the issue of the payment of “15 per cent critical support premium” was raised but was not addressed.

It said at another meeting, chaired by the Chief of Staff at the Flag Staff House, the same issue was raised but it was not addressed.

Source: GNA