Gov't To Start Dialogue With NAGRAT Next Week

By Stephen kwabena Effah
Friday, 13 October 2006 (Page 3)

THE Ministry of Education, Science and Sports, will next week begin negotiations with the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) to resolve the current impasse on the teachers’ front.

The sector minister, Papa Owusu Ankomah, announced this, and said there is a negotiating process that government is following.


The Minister made this known when responding to a question at a special Meet-the-Press yesterday which brought together four sector ministers to address issues on wages, salaries and the NAGRAT strike in Accra.

The other three ministers were Finance and Economic Planning Minister, Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Manpower, Youth and Employment Minister, Boniface Abubakar Saddique and Public Sector Reforms Minister Paa Kwesi Nduom.

Papa Ankomah said the resolution of the strike by NAGRAT requires self discipline, restraint and cooperation with all, adding that the ministry’s directive to heads of schools to engage local teachers while the strike is on, is only a temporary measure to manage the crisis.

He asked the members of NAGRAT to join GNAT which has a bargaining certificate to negotiate conditions of service on behalf of all teachers.

Asked whether NAGRAT will be issued its own bargaining certificate, the Minister said that the government cannot subvert the law, adding that "The Ministry does not have the power to say that NAGRAT should be given a bargaining certificate to stand alone".

He appealed to the striking teachers to return to the classrooms, saying that "the effect of their action is very serious".

For his part, Mr. Baah-Wiredu said the GES requires ¢31.1 trillion for wages and other related remuneration.

This, he said, is difficult to meet because the total national revenue projected for the 2007 fiscal year is ¢31.5 trillion.
He explained that Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product for the year is ¢112.6 trillion and domestic revenue ¢26.4 trillion, out of which ¢14 trillion is used to service wages and related issues.

He said that the GDP for next year has been put at ¢128 trillion with a projected domestic revenue of 31.5 trillion.

The finance minister indicated that 53.1 per cent of Ghana’s total revenue goes to pay the wages of the 500,000 workers in the public service.

He said that the country’s ability to pay more wages depends on its ability to generate more revenue, stressing "we cannot overtask ourselves. When one sector is demanding the total revenue where do we fall at?"

Calling for exercise of patience by workers, Mr. Baah-Wiredu said that spending so much time dealing with strikes in the middle of a fiscal year would not help the development of the country.

He recalled that when he was the Minister of Education, about 70 per cent of his time was spent on labour issues at that ministry and said although progress has been made towards better wages for workers, it is still not the best.