Upper West NAGRAT joins call for 20% salary increment, threatens strike

The Upper West Regional branch of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) has added its voice to calls on government to grant a 20% increment in the salaries of public sector workers.

According to the group, their members can no longer cope with the current economic situation in the country, hence the need for the government to grant the 20% increment to help mitigate the rising cost of living in Ghana.

Various labour unions have been agitating for a 20 percent pay rise for public sector workers, citing the hikes in the prices of goods and services in the country as their reason.

It will be recalled that at this year’s National May Day celebration, which took place at the black star square in Accra, the General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress, Dr. Yaw Baah appealed to the government to grant the 20% cost of living allowance.

Prior to the request, the leadership of NAGRAT, GNAT, CCT, and TEWU made similar ones in November 2021.

Again, on the 7th of June 2022, the Vice President of NAGRAT reiterated their call for the 20% cost of living allowance, saying their members can no longer bear the excruciating economic conditions in the country.

However, it appears the demands have fallen on deaf ears, since the government is yet to grant the increment.

The Upper West Regional Chairman of NAGRAT, Harrun Ussif Kadiri, addressing journalists at a press conference on Friday, June 24, 2022, decried that their members could no longer meet their economic obligations due to the rising cost of fuel and other goods and services.

“Prices of goods and services continue to rise day by day in addition to the introduction of new taxes. This has worsened the already bad situation, and yet the teacher's salary remains the same. In the face of all these challenges, labour unions pleaded with the government to cushion the Ghanaian worker by granting the cost of living allowance to help mitigate the mass suffering of the Ghanaian worker but the calls seem to be falling on deaf ears”.

The chairman has thus given the government an ultimatum to grant the 20% cost of living allowance, or they will embark an industrial strike to press home their demands.

“We have come to our wit’s end. We can no longer bear the pain. We, the Upper West NAGRAT, therefore, demand of our national leadership that if at the end of June 2022 our call for the cost of living allowance is not headed to, we will lay down our tools”.

The group says it is working with other teacher unions to compel the government to adhere to their demands.

---citinewsroom