Civil servants threaten strike action

Accra, June 13, GNA - The Civil Servants Association (CSA) on Wednesday gave Government up to July 3 this year, to correct inequities in their working conditions to avert any industrial action.

The demand formed part of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in August 2006, which among other things sought to address inequalities, discrepancies and disparities as well correct the uneven relatives in the Ghana Universal Salary structure (GUSS).

At a Meeting with the Greater Accra Regional and District Executives of the Association in Accra to brief them on salary negotiations so far, Mr Tennyson Foli, Vice President of the CSA said the implementation of the MOU should have been effective October 1 2006, while the new salary was to reflect in the pay of Civil Servants by November the same year.
The Association, he noted, was tasked to come out with accurate data on the CSA with the proper placement of all members on the GUSS, adding that this was done and submitted to government. He told the meeting that the report could not be fully implemented by government due to cash flow constraint and therefore decided that 90 percent of it should be implemented by 2007 with the remaining 10 to be taken care of later.
" Surprisingly when negotiations commenced in 2007, the 10 percent was deferred to 2008 and after a series of meetings there seems to be no headway," Mr Foli said.
The Association had followed laid down procedures for redress and informed the National Labour Commission (NLC) accordingly to entreat government to restore the 10 percent but government had refused to honour its side of the MOU.
According to Mr Foli, the National executives would continue to do all it could to get government to honour its side of the bargain so that they were not held blameable if the situation got out of hand, because much effort had already been made to restrain the membership from embarking on the intended industrial action.
"Government should come out with a clear statement on this matter," he said.
The non-payment of the 10 percent had made it impossible for the CSA to negotiate for adjustment of 2007 salaries, he added. He explained that civil servants had not asked for salary increment since 2005 but all that they were asking was the removal of distortions and a fair playing field for all workers.