UW/R GNAT Demands End to GES/SIC Life Policy Deductions

By Lydia Darlington Forjour

Wa — The leadership of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) in the Upper West Region has asked the Ghana Education Service to stop the illegal deductions of levies from the salary of teachers as life policy.

GNAT also wants a refund of the money that was deducted fromteachers' salary without their consent.

The GES was alleged to have deducted GH?10.00 from every teacher's salary in June, 2018, for a life policy that members had neither consented to nor sensitised on.

The GES earlier communicated to teachers that they were going to undertake a life policy with the State Insurance Commission which would come at no cost to members.

A press statement issued on Tuesday signed by the regional chairman, Mr Ivon Kuule and the Regional Secretary, Mr Kwame Dagbandau respectively and copied to the Ghanaian Times, explained that the issue of the deductions brought a lot of agitations among its members and this led to the lodging of a formal complaint with the GES, for which the Service apologised and promised to refund the money to the teachers.

"These deductions contravened sections 69(2) b and 70 of the Labour Act 2003 (ACT 651) because GES failed to sensitise members before implementing the policy. They therefore made exit forms available to the members to fill but they were reluctant because they had not filled any form to join any group, so why would they need to complete exit forms to leave a group they did not join in the first place?" it stated but said the members completed the forms which were taken back to the GES.

The statement hinted that instead of halting the deductions after the teachers had taken the pain to fill the forms, the deductions of GH?10.00 reappeared again on their pay slips for the month of July, 2019.

"In view of the bad faith exhibited by management of GES/SIC Life, the GNAT Upper West resolved that all GES/SIC Life policy deductions be taken off the pay slips of our members with immediate effect, the management of GES/SIC life should refund all deductions made on the salaries of our members with immediate effect and should provide membership forms to interested members to fill in order to allow them to join the policy before making any deductions," the statement outlined.

The statement emphasised that "if our concerns are not addressed before 31st August, 2019, the leadership of GNAT Upper West cannot restrain its members from taking any action".

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