Commission invites NAGRAT, GES (Spread)

THE National Labour Commission (NLC) says it has invited the executive of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Ghana Education Service (GES) to an emergency meeting today over the impending strike by NAGRAT.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday, the Public Affairs Officer of the NLC, Mr Mohammed Affum, said the meeting would enable the commission to look at how to resolve complaints over reduction of car maintenance and responsibility allowances being made by the teachers.
The commission cautioned the association not to go ahead with the strike, since it would be considered illegal.
“It cannot go on strike because the requirements for a strike have not been fulfilled under the circumstance,” he said.
Throwing more light on the legality or otherwise of the intended strike, Mr Affum said NAGRAT had not followed the procedure for seeking redress under the Labour Act and pointed out that no complaint had so far been made to the NLC, which had the mandate to resolve differences between employers and employees.
He said NAGRAT, after reaching a deadlock with the GES over the issue of lowering of conditions of service, should have complained to the NLC, which would have called for mediation or even arbitration, if no agreement was reached.
A front-page story carried by the Daily Graphic on Wednesday indicated that graduate teachers in the country, under the umbrella of NAGRAT, were up in arms again, ready to lay down their tools from Monday, November 30 as a result of what they claimed as the lowering of their conditions of service.