An economist and former Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, Professor Stephen Adei is urging public sector workers not to expect any fat pay-cheques from the government – their employer.
Public sector workers are asking that the government should index their salaries on the current inflation rate of 19.4 percent. Prof Adei does not see this happening – how the government is going to do this.
“I cannot see how the government can pay any significant increase in salaries now.” The “say it as you see it” economist and educationist, explained that the only way the government would be to satisfy the salary demand by the workers was through printing of money, something that would fuel inflation.
Prof Adei said amid the price hikes in fuel, goods and services, labor’s demand for substantial pay rise was legitimate but the truth was that the economy could simply not support that.
The government has projected to slash its spending by 20 percent to save the economy from collapsing and with debt servicing and public sector wage bills accounting for between 95 and 98 percent of the government’s expenditure, workers should not expect any huge upward adjustment of their salaries.
Dr. Yaw Baah, Secretary General of the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC), has warned of labor unrest if things remained as they were. He has been demanding a pay rise that would be commensurate with the current inflation rate.
Kenneth Koomson, Deputy General Secretary of the Ghana Federation of Labor, also says “workers should not suffer alone in these hard times”.
He is unhappy with the huge salary gap between Article 71 office holders and the rest of the country’s workers. “Government cannot expect workers to continue to make sacrifices and live miserable lives.”
These comments from the good old professor has received a lot of bashing from many Ghanaians.
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