Business News of Tuesday, 10 August 2021
Source: Muhammed Faisal Mustapha, Contributor
2021-08-10
The group says it has resolved to petition the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
The Coalition Against Leadership of TUC and Organized Labour in Favour of Ghanaian Workers are set to petition President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Parliament of Ghana over 4% and 7% salary increment for 2021 and 2022 public sector workers.
In a petition signed by Azubila Emmanuel Abdul-Salam, the Executive Secretary of the Coalition said they believe that the Finance Minister and Labour Union Representatives who represented the Labour front at the Tripartite Committee meeting where the 4% and 7% salary increment were agreed for 2021 and 2022 did not do so in the utmost interest of Ghanaians workers.
The petitioners made reference to Professor Yaa Ntiamoa Baidu’s report on emoluments of Article 71 officeholders, the general recommendation relating to the implementation of Article 71 on page 57 of the report with reference number: PCE/2020-Rec.05
This according to them does not support the facts on the ground as the Annual Gross Salary of a Principal Superintendent in the Ghana Education Service for instance is similar to the Monthly Gross Salary of a Member of Parliament who is an Article 71 officeholder and it is for such yawning disparities in the salary levels coupled with the 4% killer salary increment.
According to the petitioners, being guided by the General Recommendations of the Professor Yaa Ntiamoa Baidu report, they are calling on the President to give them the same salary increment as Article 71 officeholders or apply the principle of “leadership by example” and reduce Article 71 officeholders salary increment to the 4% benchmark in order to resonate with the common phraseology of not being in normal times on the back of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The petitioners reiterated that the Labour Union leaders who represented Ghanaian workers and the Finance Minister have been very unfair to Ghanaian workers and exercised their duties in bad faith for a reason best known to them.
According to them, Ghanaian workers can not just survive with the 4% and 7% salary increment for 2021 and 2022 respectively in the wake of the introduction of new taxes at the beginning of this year which devastating and dire socio-economic consequences have not spared the already suffering Ghanaian public sector worker.