Chigabatia urges workers to exercise restraint

Cape Coast, April 27, GNA - Mr Smart Chigabatia, the Executive Secretary of the Civil Servants Association (CSA), on Wednesday repeated his call on workers not to embark on demonstrations because plans were far advanced to address their concerns.

He said at a recent meeting both the national executive of the association and the government "agreed to work assiduously towards concluding the on-going negotiations for the 2006 salaries before May 10 so that the new salaries could be paid at the end of May". Mr Chigabatia, who said this in an address read for him at the Central Regional Delegates' congress of the association, also briefed the congress on efforts being made to implement the monetization policy.

Mr kawawa Joris, the Director responsible for grievances at the CSA headquarters, also assured the workers that they had reached the cross-roads in their struggle for better conditions of service and that something positive from the government was in the pipeline. He appealed to the government to respect the tenets of the agreements reached in order not to compel workers to take to the streets again.

In elections for new regional executives for a four-year term, Mr Theophilus Riberio, of the Department of Community Development at Agona Swedru was elected regional chairman and Mr Clement Bannerman of the Public Works Department (PWD) in Cape Coast as organiser. Mr Emmanuel Andam of the Department of Co-operatives at Elmina and Alexander Oteng, also of the Department of Cooperative at Agona Swedru were elected treasurer and trustee respectively.