You should have demanded 15% salary increment – ATAG
A decision by teachers unions to push for 15% Cost of Living Allowance, COLA instead of a 15% salary increment instead has not impressed the All Teachers Alliance, Ghana, ATAG.
The association says such a move would have permanently improved the conditions of service of teachers.
During an interview with Citi FM, the National President of the union, Isaac Ofori, says the government might use the payment of 15% COLA as bait not to meet other necessary demands of teachers.
“What is the guarantee that after the government takes all the workers off the COLA, it is going to specifically maintain teachers on it? If teachers agree on a five or seven per cent salary increment, it means that we have lost the negotiations.”
The government on the other hand has served notice that the 15 per cent Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) for members of organized labour would be suspended when the conditions that necessitated it are no more.
The various worker unions declared an indefinite strike in demand of a 20 per cent cost of living allowance to cushion them against the current economic hardship.
However, the government reached a consensus with them for the payment of 15 per cent of the allowance effective July 1, 2022.
“Teachers are one of the greatest tools used to demand the rights of workers in this country. So if we are activating the strike, we should do so on the back of something exclusive to us. Matters have now been generalized, and our concerns have been limited to organized labour”, Isaac Ofori lamented.
Bright Wereko Brobby Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour Relations spoke on the possibility of the non-payment of the allowance in the future.
“We have agreed that the Cost of Living Allowance will be paid effective 1st July. As the name applies, it is an allowance which is a result of certain factors that have arisen in the year so as and when these factors are no longer there, there will not be the relevance to continue with it.”
The government and leadership of organised labour finally agreed on a 15% Cost Of Living Allowance for members of organised Labour.
The various worker unions, including the four teacher unions, the Ghana Medical Association, and the Public Sector Workers Union, among others, demanded the payment of 20 per cent of their basic salaries as Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) due to the current economic situation in the country.
Negotiations dragged on for over two weeks, compelling CCT, GNAT, NAGRAT, and TEWU to embark on industrial action to insist on their demands.
But after a crunch meeting on July 14, 2022, both parties concluded a 15% COLA, which will take retrospective effect from July 1, 2022.
The Employment and Labour Relations Minister, Ignatius Baffour Awuah, reading out the terms of the agreement, said “We agreed with the labour unions that the COLA will be paid at the rate of 15% of base pay, that the effective date for the payment of the COLA will be 1st July 2022.”
“We also agreed that all industrial actions underway and threats of same will be called off immediately and that labour will return to work.”
