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Angry Public Workers Threaten Demo Over ‘Meagre’ 7% Pay Rise
Some public sector workers calling themselves Aggrieved Public Sector Workers, have expressed disappointment with the government’s decision to increase the base pay of public sector workers by seven per cent for the year 2022.
Employment and Labour Relations Minister, Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, on Tuesday, 4 January 2021, made the announcement at the 6th Quadrennial National Delegates Conference and the 90th-anniversary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) held in Kumasi.
He said the earlier four per cent increase has been superseded by the current raise.
Mr Baffour-Awuah noted that the four per cent increase was due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy.
But reacting to the pay rise, the convenor of the Aggrieved Public Sector Workers, Mr Norbert Gborgbortsi, told Valentina Ofori-Afriyie on 12Live on Class91.3FM on Wednesday, 5 January 2022: “How good is seven per cent for the public sector worker when strangers have entered into our coffers and have taken 80 per cent and they are giving us seven per cent?”
“What is good about the seven per cent?” he asked.
Asked who the strangers were, Mr Gborgbortsi said the strangers are the politicians, adding: “They come for four years and they leave”.
On the other hand, he said: “We work throughout our lifetime, 40, 50, 60 years until we go on retirement; some even die in the course of their jobs and, so, it is unfortunate for them to award us seven per cent and award themselves 80 per cent.”
He explained that “if everything is not going right for all of us, we must all face it”.
“This seven per cent we are talking about, some people may be taking home GHS35 at the end of the month and that GHS35 is being eroded by inflation already, not to talk of the taxes they want to introduce like the mobile money tax and the NHIA levy; and that percentage is subject to your tax before it is being released to you, so, before the money gets to you, it is not even up to that GHS35.”
Mr Gborgbortsi noted that the public sector worker will only be satisfied with what is contained in the Ntiamoah Committee report, which states that what should be given to Article 71 officeholders should not exceed that of public sector workers.
He said the union has started galvanising support to demonstrate – again.
“We are mobilising from the district level. You’ll see us soon on the streets. We’re planning toward no work at all but we don’t have a date yet.”