The Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations is expected to begin talks with the Judicial Service Staff Association of Ghana (JUSAG) over the implementation of their consolidated salaries.
According to Alex Nartey, National President of JUSAG, the Association had a “call from the minster for a meeting tomorrow [today]”.
He disclosed in a telephone interaction with DAILY GUIDE yesterday that JUSAG was still on strike, adding that “The issue is not about how much [we are expecting in our accounts] or whatever but the approval of the recommended consolidated salaries.”
No Negotiation
The JUSAG National President, while denying an alleged crunch meeting with the government yesterday, contended that the time for negotiation had elapsed.
“In our opinion, there is nothing like negotiating with JUSAG any longer because we have done that already with the Judicial Council and same was recommended to the President as far back as June 2015 so it's the implementation that has travelled this long and has plunged all of these into this unfortunate situation.”
Asked what next step the Association was likely to take should the meeting end inconclusively, he stated: “Once we have had a call from the government for a meeting, we don't want to speculate any longer.”
Strike
JUSAG declared an indefinite nationwide strike on May 20 over what they described as government's failure to implement the consolidation of salaries and allowances of its members.
This followed a period of brief strikes declared by the Association in March and April this year.
Mr Nartey at a news conference last week stated: “The double-talk and the correspondence by the government put our expectation in doubt. All efforts to have the said consolidated salaries implemented have not yielded the anticipated results.”
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He claimed the Judicial Council and the Association had fully furnished government with all the necessary documents regarding the consolidated salaries but the government had failed to honour its pledges.
Respect
But Haruna Iddrisu, the Employment and Labour Relations Minister, is reported to have criticised JUSAG for not showing respect to the labour laws of the country.
He said he believed that if they (JUSAG) had respected the necessary rules and regulations in the country, they would have exhausted the right channels before declaring the strike.
Deserted Courts
Meanwhile, several courts in Accra and other parts of the country remained closed yesterday with pockets of stranded litigants loitering about.
As at the time of the paper's visit at 9am yesterday, the courts looked abandoned, with security personnel of a private security company guarding the properties of the court.
At the New Court Complex in Accra, the characteristic Monday morning heavy vehicular traffic with its attendant street hawking was absent.
The situation was the same at the Magistrate, Circuit and the Supreme Courts.
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By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson
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