Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG) has dismissed claims that it refused to hour the National Labour Commission’s (NLC) invitation for a hearing over their strike.

According to the association's President Prince Obeng-Himah, such statements are false.

He said that “it is misplaced to say that CETAG did not attend the meeting", adding that "CETAG acted in the line of the law."

This follows reports that the CETAG ignored NLC’s invitation on August 3 stating that they did not have any issue with it (NLC), and thus would not appear before it. 

The hearing became necessary as CETAG on August 1 embarked on an industrial action to push the government to redeem its promise of implementing its negotiated conditions of service.

Read also: National Labour Commission directs CETAG to call off strike

Their decision follows the non-compliance of the government to implement the National Labour Commission’s (NLC) Arbitral Award Orders and the negotiated conditions of service since May 2, 2023.

Speaking on JoyNews’ The Probe on Sunday, the CETAG president explained what unfolded between the duo - CETAG and NLC.

“What happened was that we sent a letter. When the NLC invites you, it lies within our [CETAG] constitutional power to respond in writing if we are not clear with the issue so that is what we did. And our position was clear that there wasn’t any issue to be settled.

“What remained to be done was compliance with the orders that the NLC themselves had come up with which government was refusing,” he said.

According to him, they expected NLC to go to the Supreme Court to take further orders to compel government to comply to redeem its promise of implementing its negotiated conditions of service.

“We wrote to them and they sent us another invitation. After broad consultation with our members – I mean the structures and our lawyer, we decided that we were going to go. We responded,” he stressed.

For this reason, he believes it is ‘misplaced’ to say that CETAG did not honour NLC’s meeting.

Mr Obeng-Himah stated that it is critical for CETAG to use the strike to send a clear message that the NLC exists to issue orders that must be followed by the government and employees.

According to him, CETAG's problems have been intermittent since 2021 hence the need for them to be addressed.