Editorial Wednesday, November 9, 2022
The industrial action declared by teachers in pre-tertiary institutions continued after a meeting between the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations and the teacher Unions ended inconclusively on Friday.
The meeting was rescheduled to Tuesday, November 08, 2022.
On Friday, November 04, the leadership of three Teacher Unions – the National Association of Graduate Teachers, Ghana National Association of Teachers and Coalition of Concerned Teachers Ghana declared a strike after the expiration of an ultimatum they gave the Government to rescind its decision on the appointment of Dr Eric Nkansah as the new Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES).
The Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations called the Unions to a meeting on notice of the strike on Friday, November 04, 2022.
The meeting was inconclusive, hence, rescheduled to Monday, November 07, 2022.
The Reverend Isaac Owusu, President of the Ghana National Association of Teachers, said the meeting on Monday had been a “constructive one”.
However, he urged teachers to remain calm and continue with the strike until they heard from the leadership of the Unions.
The Daily Searchlight wishes to ask whether the employee must dictate to the employer who the employer should recruit, employ or hire to manage its affairs.
Whilst we most often support the actions of labour for fair and better conditions, we believe that the rationale for the declaration of the strike in this instance is most unfortunate.
We believe that it is not the job of the employee to dictate to the employer his policy for recruitment. Indeed, a worker who believes that he cannot work because his superior or another employee is unfit can choose to resign and give up the position, but we think that it is wholly untenable for a worker to lay down his tools because another person has been given an appointment.
We believe, in this instance, that government should call the bluff of these unions, by adopting a harder position. It should begin by withholding all salaries, conditions and emoluments until the teacher unions see reason.
If necessary, the government should consider the option of laying off these striking teachers, because to give in, is to hand over administrative power and duty to the workers, to dictate who the government should employ in future.
(This article was first published in the column EDITORIAL of the Daily Searchlight on Wednesday, November 9, 2022. The Daily Searchlight appears on the newsstands of Ghana every working day and PDF versions are available for sale online twenty-four hours a day all day throughout the world on www.ghananewsstand.com)
