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The August salaries of 2,600 members of the Polytechnic Teachers Association of Ghana (POTAG) have been paid. The Controller and Accountant General�s Department (CAGD) effected the payment last week. In an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra, the Chairman of the Accra Polytechnic chapter of POTAG, Mr Jones Ntiamoah, said: �The August salaries of our members have been paid.� �What is outstanding is the book and research allowance,� Mr Ntiamoah said, and described the decision of the government to finally release the August 2014 salaries of POTAG members as �relieving�. The Ministry of Finance, in a memo dated September 2, 2014, directed the CAGD to pay the salaries of POTAG members, thereby rescinding the government�s earlier decision to freeze them. Strike POTAG, on September 2, 2014, threatened to embark on yet another strike if salaries of its members were not paid, a week after it called off a three-month industrial action. That threat stemmed from the freezing of the August 2014 salaries of its members but as it stands now, �issues bordering on salaries have been resolved,� Mr Ntiamoah said. Asked what POTAG would do to make up for the lost hours after the three-month long strike by its members, Mr Ntiamoah said: �We are doing all we can to make up for the lost hours.� Background POTAG members were on strike from May 15, 2014 to August 31, 2014, in protest against the non-payment of their book and research allowance. This led to the closure of all polytechnics in the country. Following this, the government also decided to freeze the salaries of the teachers and accordingly, the Ministry of Education issued a directive to the Controller and Accountant General�s Department, ordering it to freeze the August salaries of the striking teachers. The association, however, called off the strike after a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between POTAG and the government. According to Mr Ntiamoah, the MoU indicated that the Book and Research Allowance for the 2013/2014 academic year would be paid. Court issues On July 14, 2014, the Human Rights Division of the Accra High Court declared that the strike called by POTAG was legal. Consequently, the court, presided over by Mr Justice Kofi Essel Mensah, directed the National Labour Commission (NLC) to enter a compulsory arbitration procedure, provided for under Regulation 26 of the National Labour Commission Regulation, with POTAG to resolve the impasse. Accordingly, Justice Mensah said the NLC was expected to enter the compulsory arbitration within 10 working days with the leadership of the lecturers. The three-month strike led to the closure of polytechnics in the country, as the Polytechnic Act states that a school or polytechnic will be closed after 21 days of continuous strike by lecturers or students.