Civil Servants threaten strike action

Techiman (B/A), Oct. 9, GNA - Civil Servants in the Techiman Municipality have threatened to embark on a sit down strike if government fails within one week to approve fully the Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) on salaries.

This was contained in a statement signed by the Municipal Secretary of the Civil Servants Association of Ghana, Mr. Isaac Adangabe at a meeting to discuss issues affecting workers of the Association, especially the MOU reached between the Association and Government in the middle of September.

Mr. Adangabe said Government at a recent meeting on September 29 put up new proposals, which fell short of what had earlier been agreed upon at the Consultative Forum.

This action, Mr. Adangabe said, had therefore, proved beyond reasonable doubt that the government had withdrawn all the offers earlier proposed which had been accepted without question.

He mentioned that, this year's negotiation and the MOU reached included status of level One to two, 10 percent upward adjustment across board, for levels three to 22 with an effective date on March 1, 2005, an increase of 11.5 percent, as well as upward review of re-imbursable allowances and special allowance of 25 billion cedis per month from September to December 2005.

Mr. Adangabe said the steps being adopted by the government, as the employer, "cannot be acceptable within a democratic system." The straw that broke the camel's back was the change of effective date from March 2005 to June 2005 and that the special allowance had also been reduced to two months instead of four months with the re-imbursable allowances completely withdrawn.

Addressing the members, Mr. R.K. Garbrah, the local Chairman of the Association deplored the negative manner in which members attended meetings and impressed upon them to take the attendance of meetings very seriously.

Mr. Garbrah reiterated that apathy and lack of commitment towards the Association were unhealthy for the development of any association worth its salt.