Restore Approved Salaries Of Civil Servants -TUC

The Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress(TUC), Mr Kwasi Adu Amankwaah, has called on the government to restore the salaries of workers which were cut in July, this year. He said the pay cut was creating great dissatisfaction among workers and the “TUC cannot simply look on.”

He said the TUC was aware of some kind of dialogue on the matter but would want “quick steps to rectify the anomaly”. In an interview in Accra, Mr Adu Amankwaah said it was not proper for salaries negotiated for to be implemented and later slashed. “This undermines the integrity of the bargaining process”, he said “Industrial Relations practice does not allow this”.

Mr Adu Amankwaah said that even though the TUC was not directly involved in negotiations for the salaries, some of its members , especially the Health Services Workers Union and Teachers and Educational Workers Union members, were affected. In another interview, Mr. Smart Chigabatia, the Executive Secretary of the Civil Servants Association said that the Joint Consultative Forum had met three times on the matter but no firm decision had been taken.

He said that the excuse that the anomaly occured because the government “overshot its budget and that there were problems with financial flow are not acceptable”.

Mr. Chigabatia said that the government's silence on the issue was “breeding dissatisfaction among workers”.

“The government should act fast to maintain the peace on the labour front, especially in the face of elections in December”, he said. adding that “what had already been agreed on, should be paid”.