Benefits GNAT Executives Get | Consider Contesting
Unionism is primarily organizing professionals in a particular field of work. The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) is the oldest and largest teachers’ union in the country, Ghana. The membership of the union is over two hundred and fifty thousand (250000) members across the country. A union with over ninety (91) years old is structured in a way synonymous with a state institution. This keeps members speculating about the benefits GNAT executives get when they are elected.
The Ghana National Association of Teachers has two sets of office holders. One set of office holders are the secretaries of the union. The secretaries are appointed to man district offices, regional offices and national headquarters.
The second batch of office holders are the elected officers. These officers stand for election at the local level, district level, regional and national levels. Even schools have their representative elected or nominated by members at the various schools.
The open secret is that the elections are fiercely contested at various levels. The reason ordinary members keep wondering about the benefits GNAT executives get. Our team then took the pain to verify the kind of benefits executives get and found out the following.
First of all, the most specific benefit that is mentioned is the ex-gratia given to executives as their end of office benefit. According to a former executive of the Ghana National Association of Teachers that our team spoke to, it was discovered that all former executives, including local executives are paid an end of service benefit. Even though the elected officers are paid salaries, it is curious to ask the basis for paying the end of service benefit to all former executives.
Other benefits GNAT executives get are per diem given to executives when they attend certain meetings or conferences or Congress of the union. Also, it is not clear whether the per diem given to members is reasonable or not. What is clear is that executives stand the chance to enjoy a per diem for attending certain meetings or programs of the union. Since no amount of money is too small, ordinary members can attempt to become executives for the purposes of enjoying some amount of money through the per diem.
Another benefit you stand to enjoy is allowances for loan committees. It has been disclosed that some sizeable amount of money, out of loans members take, is rebated.
In all, the goal of becoming an executive in the Ghana National Association of Teachers is not a bad idea for anyone who has the capacity to do so. The benefits GNAT executives get could even go beyond what our team has found out. That is the opportunity to get per diem for meetings, availability of end of service benefits, regular allowance on loans taken and influence peddling. Candidates who aspire should rather be aware of different interest groups in the unions before contesting.
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