Underpaid private school teachers with no SSNIT to be rescued by NCOPST

Do you know it is wrong and illegal for your employer to underpay you, pay half just half of your salary, and refuse to pay your SSNIT after deducting? NCOPST to rescue underpaid private school teachers with the support of these educators.

The National Council for Private Schools is calling on all private school teachers who are been abused by their employers to make vital information available for the necessary action. Teachers working in private schools are often denied full salary even after completing their probation and may in some instances be denied appointment letters that will confirm their permanency as staff.

Again, many of these teachers work so hard but the employers refuse to pay their monthly SSNIT contributions although the SSNIT deductions are made every month.

If your employer is deducting your SSNIT and not paying, have a discussion with the employer however if, after several attempts, the employer is not doing the right thing, start looking for a new job, once you land one and exit, report the employer to the SOCIAL SECURITY AND NATIONAL INSURANCE TRSUT (SSNIT) and all your unpaid SSNIT will be paid. The institution will also be made to pay penalties for not paying your SSNIT contributions on time.

SSNIT can do private school teachers a lot of good by visiting private schools to check their SSNIT data on staff. This has become necessary because many of these schools are not only cheating their hardworking teachers by not paying them decent salaries but are not paying their SSNIT deductions as well.

The minimum wage of Ghana has been revised with effect from 01 January 2022. The daily minimum wage increased from 12.53 cedis to 13.53 cedis. This translates into an estimated value of GHS500.00 a month. Unfortunately, some private schools use teachers to make money without appreciating and paying decent wages. In some instances, teachers who are vocal and stand up for their rights may be seen as snitches and sacked for no reason.

It will interest you to know that there are many Private School Teachers in supposed big schools whose salaries can best be described as an insult. Some of the owners of such schools do not value the people aspect of their business. They want these teachers to do virtually everything under the sun to make the school attractive to parents, they charge very high fees as well yet, they fail to pay their teachers well due to the fact that, there are no jobs. Trained teachers who are yet to be employed by the GES and have decided to find jobs in such private schools have not been spared this treatment either. In fact, we are in the employers market and they call the shots but for how long will this go on?

Again some private schools decide to pay half salary because the vacation was in the middle of the month. This is illegal and must not be encouraged to continue.

To ensure the right things are done, NCOPST seeks to rescue underpaid private school teachers in private schools to ensure they are paid the correct salaries and at least the minimum wage.

The  National Council for Private Schools is calling on all teachers who may be facing any of the above challenges to have confidence in the council and make available information that will help take the necessary steps to ensure laws relating to employment, social security deduction, and contributions remuneration and minimum wage are discussed and solved.

To make such details available, all private school teachers are advised to fill the attached form with the relevant information for action.