General News of Wednesday, 11 October 2006

Source: GNA

Parent threatens legal action against NAGRAT

Accra, Oct 11, GNA - Mr Joseph Boakye Danquah (Jnr), a Concerned Parent, on Wednesday threatened to sue the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) if its members continued their strike and did not return to the classroom within one week.

He said it was an infringement on the rights of the Ghanaian child for Graduate Teachers to stay out of the classroom.

Speaking to Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview on the almost five-week old NAGRAT's strike, Mr Danquah said the strike action was not fair to other workers, including the Ghanaian farmer and fisherman from whose toils Government earned revenue to pay them. He said he would prefer a charge of unlawful embarking on strike against the Graduate Teachers, adding; "what NAGRAT is doing is purely indiscipline".

Mr Danquah said the practice in labour relations was that the labour union paid salaries of members on strike and not the Government or the employer.

He called on the Government not to accede to the demand of the Graduate Teachers to pay their wards' school fees to the university level since that was not part of the their agreed conditions of service. Mr Danquah said part of his writ would be to order the Ghana Education Service and the Controller and Accountant General's Department to place an embargo on the payment of the salaries of the Graduate Teachers, until the final settlement of the impasse over their service conditions.