Accra, Aug. 27, GNA - The National Labour Commission (NLC), has cautioned the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) not to embark on industrial action until it had exhausted all laid down procedures and consulted all stakeholders. TEWU intends to embark on a strike to press government to grant the Conference of Rectors of Polytechnics (CORP) mandate to review the Unified Conditions of Service for unionized staff of the Polytechnics in Ghana.

A letter from the NLC to union and copied to the Ghana News Agency by Mr Daniel Dan Antwi, General Secretary of TEWU, said the Ministers of Finance and Economic Planning; Education, Science and Sports; Manpower, Youth and Employment and the Chairman of the National Council on Tertiary Education and Secretary of CORP and the General Secretary, are meeting today Wednesday to resolve the matter. The letter said the Unified Conditions of Service for the Polytechnics expired in December 2007, and TEWU petitioned the Commission that government had failed to grant the mandate to CORP to negotiate.

Reacting to the content of the letter, Mr Antwi told the Ghana News Agency that efforts to secure the mandate for the CORP in the past proved futile, hence their petition to the NLC. "The NLC directed on 16th July, 2008, that the mandate should be given to CORP to commence negotiations and report the compliance to the NLC on 6th August, 2008 and TEWU had already informed the commission of non-compliance", he said. Mr Antwi said since government had refused, the alternative was for TEWU to press for the mandate through industrial action.