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In This Issue...Links to the News:
March 11, 2016
NAGRAT: Budget has not addressed our
concerns
Accra, Nov. 17, GNA - The National Association of Graduate
Teachers (NAGRAT) on Friday said the 2007 Budget and
Financial Statement did not address their concerns and
described the setting up of a Fair Wage Commission to
resolve the problems of salaries in the public sector as
"the same old game" of governments.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in an interview, Mr Kwami
Alorvi, National President of NAGRAT, said he did not see
any difference between the new Commission, the Central
Management Board (CMB) and the Appellate Body.
He said a major problem was that political favourites were
appointed to these offices and when governments changed,
they become ineffective.
"How different will be the work of the Fair Wage Commission
from the CMB or Appellate Body in addressing the problems of
public sector wages?" Mr Alorvi asked.
"I will not rejoice now on the establishment of the new
Commission. Let us wait and see.... It is the same old game
that governments have played on workers," he added.
Mr Alorvi said the rival teachers union, the Ghana National
Association of Teachers (GNAT), have now realised that the
government had not addressed their concerns and NAGRAT feels
vindicated.
He said they were waiting to see how the 13.2 trillion cedis
salaries would be shared and how much teachers would get in
new wages.
The Ghana Education Service announced on November 9 that
negotiations they were having with GNAT on salary proposals
and collective agreement were still going on.
Mr Samuel Bannerman-Mensah, Chairman of the Joint
Negotiating Committee, said teachers and the general public
would be informed about the outcome "as soon as negotiations
are concluded".
However, GNAT has said GES had not returned to the
negotiating table since November 3 when the GES Management
sought to consult their principals.
The negotiations were being held for the conclusions to be
fed into the Budget.
Government on Thursday unveiled the 2007 Budget and
Financial Statement dubbed Golden Jubilee Budget, saying it
was to promote growth and stability for all.
The government said the Budget would be used as the
beginning of the solution to problems of salaries in the
public sector.
President John Agyekum Kufuor in a foreword to the Budget,
said to ensure order and equity all round, the Government
was setting up a Fair Wages Commission to oversee the
implementation of this new programme.
He noted that despite gains made by the Government, there
were problems at the labour front, resulting partly from a
distorted public sector salary structure, which was also
poorly administered.
The Government was therefore using the Budget to begin the
implementation of a new comprehensive public sector pay
reform that emphasises equal pay for work of equal worth.
"The broad objective is to aim for wage increases in line
with productivity gains, cost effectiveness and efficiency."
President Kufuor quoted an adage, which says that "Rome was
not built in a day", and said: "Today, we are laying the
first block for a more rational salary structure and
administration."
Members of NAGRAT last Monday ended a crippling 10-week
strike that kept teachers away from the classrooms and put
the future of students, especially SSS 3 students who would
be writing their examinations in May/June next year, at
risk.
This followed the intervention of the Ghana Conference of
Religions for Peace led by Peter Cardinal Appiah Turkson,
Archbishop of Cape Coast.
The strike action was to back demands on the government to
review salaries of workers, especially those of teachers.
The graduate teachers also asked the Controller and
Accountant General to stop the use of Auto Code that effects
deductions from teachers' salaries and a replacement of the
Acting Director of the GES, Mr Michael Nsowah, whose
compulsory retirement was due last year.
Other issues included the implementation of adjustment in
salaries and ranks of Assistant Director and above,
meaningful responsibility allowances to be put in place by
the GES and its Council for all teachers and payment of
arrears for teachers recruited in the 2003/2004 academic
year.
GNA
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