NAGRAT Is On Strike: GES Has Failed Us � Says Addai-Poku

The leadership of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) has directed its members to embark on an indefinite industrial action as from today �because the Ghana Education Service (GES) has failed to meet our demands�, its president, Christian Addai-Poku, has said. The National Executive met last Friday to declare that the strike should start today, because their outstanding car maintenance and responsibility allowances have not been paid. �GES had violated the allowances aspect of memorandum of understanding signed between the two parties on November 25, last year and �until the money is paid we are on strike,� he told the Times yesterday. Mr Addai-Poku said even though NAGRAT is aware GES is making frantic efforts to pay the allowances, �we cannot continue to trust GES so we have resumed the intended strike action we suspended in November last year�. He said at a meeting held between NAGRAT, GES and the Ministry of Education on November 11, last year, it was agreed that �All outstanding car maintenance and responsibility allowances should be paid by the end of January 2010�. Mr Addai-Poku, however, regretted that, though January and February had elapsed, GES has failed to abide by the MoU which covered the payment of the allowances. �Therefore, the only option left for us is to resume our intended strike which we only put on hold in November last year, hoping the GES would react favourably to our concerns. �We wish to put on record that, the inaction on the part of the management of GES to our demands on outstanding car maintenance and responsibility allowances is frustrating,� he emphasized. Last year the leadership of NAGRAT Threatened to embark on a nationwide strike on November 30, as a result of what they claimed was the lowering of their condition of service. The threat was put on hold following an MoU reached between NAGRAT, GES and MOE at a meeting held on November 25. NAGRAT, however, warned that should GES failed to abide by the MoU, �NAGRAT shall have no choice but to strike without notice�.