Government Must Develop A Thick Skin

In December last year, parliament of Ghana passed the Energy Sector Levy, 2015 that resulted in the increments on petroleum products effective this year which ranges between 18 and 27%.

In as much as the levy is important, some of us are of the view that the timing of the implementation is wrong. Ghanaians are already overburdened with utility increments. In that vein, I perfectly agree with the labour unions calls that, the government must reverse or better still defer to some other time.

As the discussions went on, The chairman of the Tema District Council of Labour, Wilson Agana told a radio station in Accra that, if government refuses to reverse the price hikes, then their salaries must be increased and they will not settle for anything less than 50%.

This is what he said "We have to go back to the table and force for a salary increment for all workers. At least we have to go and fight for a salary increment of at least 50% else we cannot survive. Before we accept the increments then it means we must have salary raises for all workers. On Tuesday we will come out with our plans to press home our demands”,

Whenever there's a hike in utilities or petroleum products, the workers will threaten strike and government will sit with them and add some percentage. A typical example was last year when government gave workers 10% as cost of living allowance (COLA).

We have 25 million population in this country out of which less than a million work in the public sector. Since the implementation of the single spine salary structure, government we are been told through the budget statements, spends more than 60% of our tax revenue on their salaries alone.

The buzzwords of the opposition elements and their leaders who grant interviews to media houses has always been "why should there be an increment in utilities without commensurate increment in salaries?

Is that the practice worldwide? That whenever utilities are increased, the few public sector workers experience pay rise? Can someone tell me any country in the world that does that?

I think the president should keep to his promise he made to Ghanaians last year that, in an election year he will not be pushed by workers to yield to their demands just for political expediency.

We are watching...
Awal Mohammed
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