President of the Association of State Attorneys, Francisca Tete-Mensah has confirmed that they have called off their three months strike and would resume work on Monday, January 23.
She told Joy News that when President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo assumed office, he assured members of the Association that being a former Attorney General and a lawyer, he would ensure that their concerns are addressed.
The Association was at the Labour Commission for compulsory arbitration where its demands were awarded but the former Attorney General, Ministry of Finance and Fair Wages and Salaries Commission failed to respect the agreement.
The AG’s office, led by Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong described the strike as illegal, and further directed the State Attorneys to return to work by Tuesday, January 3, 2017, or be “considered as having vacated post.”
The Association, however, insisted their strike is legal, noting that it was pursuant to a statutory notice under Section 159 (b) of Act 651.
The attorneys also blamed the National Labour Commission for the impasse, explaining that the Commission should have gone to the High Court to compel the government to improve their conditions of service.
The incoming A-G revealed during her vetting by Parliament on Saturday that the State Attorneys will resume work on Monday following a meeting with the President.
President of the Association of State Attorneys said "based on that [meeting with President], we asked him to put it [assurances] on paper...and he directed his executive secretary to give us that paper," the President of the Association said, adding "we received the letter Friday so we called off the strike."
Some of the demands of the striking members of the Association of State Attorney include payments of correct harmonised salaries, housing facilities, sustainable pension scheme, free official vehicles, research allowance
Asked by Joy News' Beatrice Adu if all their demands have been met, Mrs Tete-Mensah said, "the award would solve the problem of pension and conditions of service. We did not have the conditions of service at all."
"The award talks about harmonisation of salaries and benefits with those of the lower court bench," she explained.
The agreement she stated further was dated September 28, 2015, and is supposed to take retrospective effect from 2012.
However, Mrs Tete-Mensah explained that "this agreement would respect the award and we would now have to sit down and look at how we would go about it for the enforcement to take place."
The Association had also spoken about the need to meet the incoming AG, Gloria Akuffo. That meeting has been slated for Tuesday, January 24.
The incoming Attorney-General, an astute lawyer who served as President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s deputy when he served as Attorney General in the Kufuor government, has also promised to work on the conditions of service for the Attorney General's Department which has become an issue lately.
Gloria Akuffo says she is concerned that a lot of professionals have either opted to work in the private sector or abandoned working at the Department because of the poor working conditions.
Source: Joy News
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. |
alarming breaking news, john mahama and n,d,c ministers to account for 37 billion dollars loans they took for 8 years rule,they will soon appear in special court to tell ghana people what they used the monies for . al ghana people must demand accountability from mahama and his ministers, all assemble men and women,d,c.e , minsters deputies ministers, president and families, relatives and state government officials will all account to the people of ghana, those ministers with ten cars, ten houses, will account soon , account, those poor people who become rich soon will tell the world, we know of their houses and hidden properties, we will make the world see and know and publish for them to be disgraced and taken away from them and jail the guilty ones, those with 17 filling stations, those who sold state properties will account, all ghana people must support nana addo for we to collect all this monies to put them back in to the economy, we will use this monies to build rail way all over ghana, build houses for all ghana people, transport for all , roads all over ghana, capitals for mothers to trade, give pensioners allowances , pay teachers and nurses allawa, all ghana people must help nana addo by naming any ones with stolen state property, we will collect all monies, send this message to all ghana people all over the world after reading, thankf u. from ghana people