Innovative Teachers Union Threatens Legal Action over Unpaid Legacy Arrears

Innovative Teachers Union (ITU), through their legal department on Friday, 3rd September, 2021, sent a notice to Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General’s Department, to serve notice with the intention to take legal actions if legacy arrears are not paid to the affected teachers.

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Background of Legacy Arrears

Teacher’s Legacy arrears emerged as a result of a 3-month pay policy for GES employees between the years of 2012 and 2016. GES employees were later asked to justify why they were due for the rest.

The Ministry of Finance, at that time explained that they wanted to ensure that only qualified employees receive the arrears from government so as to prevent “ghost names” in the CAGD from also receiving such money.

Teachers who were employed or recruited from Colleges of Education, Universities and Polytechnics as well as those who were reinstated from 2011 to 2016 has made several attempts to recover their arrears from the government through several means but have been proven futile.

On one occasion on March 2016, teachers threatened a strike action against the government. This resulted in a validation exercise at Mensvix Grand Hotel at East Legon, SMAYAK Hotel at Apam, GNAT Office at Nungua and the Office of Fair Wages and Salary Commission. However, this validation process unfortunately yielded no positive results.

Another strike action over the same issue in December 2019 was met with a court injunction secured by the National Labour Commission to halt the strike action by the affected teachers.

Further actions to claim the legacy arrears was initiated in response to a letter from GES on 29th February, 2020 which directed Unions to submit the data of their members who are owed arrears. The documents were collated by the various Unions and duly submitted. This initiative, just like the others, brought nothing to the table.

Legal Action for Legacy Arrears

All efforts made by teachers and other Unions have proved futile. However, Innovative Teachers Union has decided to use the legal system against the government. ITU plans to send the matter to court to seek justice for the affected teachers over the unpaid legacy arrears.

Hence, the founder of ITU, Mr. Stephen Desu, together with the Union’s legal department, has served a notice to GES and Ministry of Justice and Attorney General’s department on Friday, 3rd September, 2021 for them to pay all arrears owed affected teachers or the case will be sent to court after 30 days of no positive response from the Ministry and GES.

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