FROM: THE GENERAL SECRETARY’S DESK
TEACHERS HALL, ACCRA

DATE: JANUARY 2007

TO: NATIONAL OFFICERS - GNAT
REGIONAL CHAIRMEN – GNAT
DISTRICT CHAIRMEN - GNAT
REGIONAL SECRETARIES, DISTRICT SECRETARIES - GNAT
SCHOOL REPRESENTATIVES, GNATOC, TTAG
LOCAL SECRETARIES - GNAT
BASIC SCHOOL HEADS, ETC.

A) 2007 SALARY NEGOTIATIONS

i. A meeting of National Officers, Regional Chairmen and Regional Secretaries was convened on January 11, 2007 to consider Government’s offer on salaries for year 2007. After much analysis and discussion, the meeting agreed to accept the offer. The GNAT negotiating team was mandated to communicate the decision to the employer’s side.

ii. CONCLUDED AGREEMENT ON THE 2007
SALARY NEGOTIATIONS
An agreement was thus reached between the Government of Ghana/Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) on the adjustment of salary levels on Friday 12th January, 2007.
The highlights of the agreement are as follows:
a) That the hundred percent (100%) cleaning up of distortions on the Ghana Universal Salary Structure (GUSS) be implemented for teachers with effect from January 2007.

b) However, due to the 2007 budgetary constraints, 90% of the amount due will be paid to teachers in 2007. The remaining ten percent (10%) will be paid by 31st January, 2008. For instance; in the case of a Certificate ‘A’ teacher at Level 10 Step 1 who is supposed to receive an annual salary of ¢23,290,346 in 2007 will be paid ¢20,960,625.00 and the remaining ¢2,328,958 should be paid by January 31st 2008.

The new salary will be effected at the end of February 2007, as the agreement was reached lately on January 12, 2007.

B) PENSION PAYMENTS

It was also agreed that all teachers covered by these negotiations, who exit from Ghana Education Service within the agreement period shall have their final gratuity and pensions computed on the agreed (100%) figures. This applies to both beneficiaries under Teachers Pension Ordinance, 1955 and the SSNIT Scheme.

C) NEW SCHEME OF SERVICE
The New Scheme of Service will be implemented for teachers with effect from 1st October, 2006. This New Scheme of Service introduces two new positions, i.e. Deputy Director (Level 17) and Assistant Director l (Level 16).

Payment of arrears on this scheme, to those affected has been delayed as technical work of migrating personnel unto the new scheme and vetting data from districts and regions before payment has not been completed.

It is envisaged that this work will be completed soon to enable the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (C&A-G) to input the figures and payment to be effected by end of February 2007. A letter dated January 4, 2007 and signed by Ag. Director-General, Mr. M.K. Nsowah, has been issued to all Regional Directors, GNAT and NAGRAT to that effect.

The concluded agreement represents the first phase of the negotiations. The second phase will cover other issues in the Terms and Conditions of Service.

D) PROBLEMS ARISING FROM IMPLEMENTATION OF IPPD ll

The period from October 2006, to date has been characterized by various errors with regard to the implementation of a new Pay-roll system. This, no doubt, has generated so much irritation, anxiety and even embarrassment to some teachers who have experienced reduction in salaries, deletion of vital personal information or nil returns on salaries for some months.

The General Secretary has personally investigated the causes of the above phenomena from IPPD Section of GES Headquarters and Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (C&AG).

The following issues came up:

a) Suspended salaries (November and December 2006) for striking teachers in some basic schools would be restored in January 2007, following GNAT’s plea for clemency. Currently Regional GNAT Secretaries have been instructed to compile data on GNAT members in 2nd Cycle Schools for onward submission by National Secretariat to GES IPPD Section for reversal.

b) IPPD ll was implemented from October 2006, with the roll out some issues that have surfaced are:

Non-payment of some staff was due to problems such as submission of wrong Bank Accounts numbers, wrong hiring dates, wrong birth dates, and omitted salary levels.

c) The attention of the Consultants and Controller and Accountant-General’s Department staff have been drawn to the fact that though some staff had all their salary on IPPD ll as at October 2006, the system has still not been able to pay their salaries. Controller and Accountant-General’s Department is working feverishly to find a solution to the problem.

d) Additionally, some staff were temporarily suspended on IPPD l at the period of migration to IPPD ll, due to transfers, vacation of post and leave without pay. It has been agreed that their names be electronically transferred to IPPD ll as and when their inputs are re-submitted.

We would entreat all Regional and District Secretaries to be sensitive to teachers’ complaints about errors on their pay slips and other issues relating to the implementation of the IPPD ll. Such information on various issues should be compiled and relayed to the National Secretariat on a regular basis so that these could be brought to the attention of the Controller and Accountant-General.

Such discussions and collaboration between GNAT and Controller and Accountant-General’s Department need to be sustained so that both parties find effective solution to issues arising out of the implementation of the New IPPD ll system.

E) ERRORS IN DEDUCTION OF GNAT DUES
We wish to inform you that since October 2006 to date, the Association has not received any appreciable income from dues collection. In October 2006 no dues were collected on behalf of GNAT, pay slips for November 2006 indicated an input of ¢1,776.00 and December 2006 was ¢177,586.00. These figures are clearly errors. Currently the GNAT dues, pegged at 2% of salary level of minimum point of Certificate ‘A’ teachers (Level 10 Step 1) is ¢28,414.00. This has not changed as at January 2007.

We are presently having consultations with Controller and Accountant-General to reconcile the GNAT account and pay the correct level of dues for October 2006 to December 2006 and refund the balance to members. The response has been positive and we are eagerly awaiting the result of this discussion at the end of January 2007.
In effect, this situation has affected our disbursement of regional grants and implementation of other programmes scheduled for December 2006 and January 2007. We believe that by February 2007 the situation would be restored to normalcy.

CONCLUSION

This paper is an information sheet highlighting some topical, urgent and vital issues to the attention of our leadership all over the country at various levels of GNAT’s operation. This does not replace the normal Newsletter, but is an attempt to complement existing forms of communication. We would urge the association’s representatives to disseminate information to our membership as widely as possible. Please do visit the GNAT Website: www.ghanateachers.org regularly and offer us inputs to regularly update it.

We will endeavour to send out such information tit-bits regularly as and when issues arise. We would also encourage feed-back on some of the issues or information from the field to facilitate our regular interaction with the GES and Ministry of Education. We envisage having regular meetings with them on a bi-monthly basis.

We believe colleagues, have by now, heard of the appointment of a new Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES) effective from January 15, 2007. He is Mr. Sam Bannerman-Mensah, who until his appointment was a Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES).

We wish you all a Happy and Productive New Year!

IRENE DUNCAN-ADANUSA (MRS)
GENERAL SECRETARY

FAX NO. 021-226286