CLOGSAG continues strike action as government fails to pay neutrality allowance
The industrial action by members of the Civil and Local Government Staff Association of Ghana (CLOSSAG) continues this week unabated as they continue to press on for the neutrality allowance.
Their action commenced on Thursday, April 21st 2022 following the government’s failure to fulfil its promise to pay the agreed allowance as agreed upon in January this year.
Most government agencies and departments have been affected by the industrial action which commenced last week.
The only caveat that will lead them to call off the strike is on the condition that government makes a commitment to pay them the allowances.
“It was noted that the Neutrality Allowance has not been effected as agreed, in spite of official reminders and follow-ups to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning,” CLOGSAG noted in a statement last week.
The said allowance is to make sure that civil and local government workers do not engage in partisanship while conducting their affairs when they are in their various offices. It is paid to them to ensure that they discharge their duties professionally without getting involved in partisan activities.
Meanwhile, the industrial action and demand for the allowance have generated public debate with a divided opinion on the relevance of such an allowance.
While others are of the view that government giving in to such demand will open the floodgate for other allowance claims, some believe that such an allowance is important to keep civil and local government workers away from serving based on their political interests.
US-based professor, Prof. Kwaku Asare, also known as Prof. Azar in a Facebook post opined that “Ghana’s civil service has been so politicized that civil servants must now be paid political neutrality allowance… In most places, civil servants are neutral and may, albeit with substantial risks, be incentivized to be partisan. Ghana’s civil servants, on the other hand, appear to be partisan until they are incentivized to be neutral. We have to be careful or soon students will be demanding allowances to take exams, voters will be demanding allowances to vote.”
