The national leadership of the Teachers and Educational Workers' Union, TEWU, has registered its displeasure about the sudden decision of the Ghana Education Service to start deductions from members' salaries under the GES-SIC Group policy, when the union is yet to engage its members at the Regional, District and local levels.
"It must be stated clearly that TEWU and other teacher unions at earlier meetings before the sudden deductions, proposed to the Ministry of Education and GES management, that there should be sustained awareness and sensitisation of all workers to buy into GES-SIC Group policy to enhance its appeal among our members, so that they can accept it and actively participate and to be committed to the Group insurance policy project," it said in a statement issued in Accra.
This according to the statement was because subscribing to the policy was voluntary and people need to be educated on it so that they can make their decisions.
The TEWU leadership therefore understands the anger of its members when the deductions started with their June salary without any awareness creation for members to be abreast of the group insurance.
"We blame this unfortunate situation on the management of GES for going ahead with the deductions without final agreement with the union to set the target date for the commencement of the deductions. In fact, we are really surprised and feel really uncomfortable that the GES started the deductions in the absence of the needed education and sensitisation of our members who should be aware that there is this agreement before the deductions are effected," the statement said.
The statement said "We appreciate the fact that that following the public anger from our rank and file, a meeting was quickly held on June 26, 2018 with the Minister of Education and the Director-General of the GES where we registered our strong protest that the deduction cannot continue without education and sensitisation of our members. So we have asked that they halt the process of further deductions until we engage the rank and file of the TEWU to know those who will be willing to sign unto the policy since it is optional."
The statement assured the rank and file of its members within the Ghana Education Service, and other stakeholders that it would always engage them on any welfare policy before they were implemented.
"We will not condone any action that can short-change the implementation of any welfare benefit whatsoever, because the leadership will always act in their best interest so they should stay calm.
The leadership will work closely with SIC and the Ghana Education Service to organise forums in the regions and districts and local level, to address concerns of members to appreciate why the policy is being initiated," it said.
The statement assured its members that no policy aimed at enhancing their welfare will be implemented without their total participation and buy-in.
A couple of months ago, the Ministry of Education through the Ghana Education Service (GES) initiated discussions with teacher unions to initiate a major insurance policy to enhance the welfare benefits of all workers within the Ghana Education Service whether you are a teaching staff or not.
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