The General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Thomas Tanko Musah, has defended the ongoing nationwide teachers’ strike, insisting that the unions do not intend to cause harm but are demanding the implementation of agreements reached with the government.
According to him, the unions resorted to industrial action after negotiations with the government failed to resolve concerns over the payment and salary placement of newly promoted teachers.
Speaking on TV3’s Hot Issues on Sunday, October 4, Mr Tanko Musah said previous discussions had established that newly promoted teachers would not be required to submit additional documents for their salary adjustments.
He said the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (CAGD) was instead expected to process the payments automatically.
“We don’t mean harm. We went for a meeting to negotiate, they themselves read the text out that nobody should submit any document and Controller was instructed to go and pay the thing automatically to teachers and you have not done it, is it our making?” he said.
‘Teachers work for government’
Mr Tanko Musah stressed that teachers are employees of the government and not the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department, which only facilitates the payment of their salaries.
“We didn’t work for Controller, we work for Government but government decided that the salaries that we will take should go through Controller,” he said.»
He argued that the government, as the employer, has a responsibility to ensure that teachers receive their rightful salaries after fulfilling their obligations.
According to him, if government had made funds available and instructed the Controller to effect the payments, it was the government’s responsibility to ensure that the directive was implemented.
“If somebody has worked and the person is going to Controller to go and take his salary and the person who is supposed to pay my salary is telling me that he will not give it to me, then my employer is under obligation and he owes me the duty of care to order that person, authorize and instruct him that look the money I gave you to give to my employees, give it to them,” he stated.
He maintained that the dispute was ultimately between the teacher unions and their employer, the government, over the handling of salary payments.
“We did not work for Controller and if there is anything, we have an issue with our employer (Government) and that is where we are now,” he said.
Unions maintain strike
The three major pre-tertiary teacher unions—GNAT, the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Pre-Tertiary Education Teachers Association of Ghana (PRETAG)—declared a nationwide strike effective Friday, September 25, 2026.
Their concerns include the failure to automatically place promoted teachers on their appropriate salary levels, delays in processing salary arrears and adjustments, the non-implementation of the 20% Deprived Area Allowance, and expired conditions of service and collective agreements.
Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu and Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson have urged the unions to call off the strike, while committing to resolving the outstanding promotion-related payments and scheduling further negotiations with the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC).
The teacher unions, however, have maintained their position, directing members to remain off duty until the outstanding salary adjustments and arrears are paid.
