EC workers to boycott Voter Registration Exercise

Accra, Sept. 15, GNA - The Workers Union of the Electoral Commission (EC) on Monday indicated its intention to boycott the Demarcation of New Electoral Areas, Replacement of the Voters' Register and the 2004 General Election if conditions of service of its members were not improved.

"The issue of salary is non-negotiable, it comes first, it takes precedence over all electoral activities...we are fed-up with the overemphasis on operation cost at the expense of the welfare of workers," the Local Chairman of the Commission's Public Service Workers Union of the Trades Union Congress, Mr Anthony Ekpedzor stated.

Mr Ekpedzor, who was speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in interview, admitted that there had been agitation over better conditions of service and that the workers had threatened to resort to demonstrations and boycotts to back their demand.

disenchantment among the junior and senior staffs.

The situation led to a peaceful demonstration last Friday mainly by junior staff, to register their protest against what they described as "undue delay in the implementation of a new salary structure" for them. Mr Ekpedzor said the intention of the workers should not be misinterpreted as an attempt to sabotage multi-party democracy, neither was it an attempt to undermined the government but a legitimate Constitutional right to demand for a fair remuneration for their services.

He said the workers had been patient and had adopted all legitimate non-confrontational methods in making their point to the Ministry of Finance, Central Management Board (CMB) and the Appellate Body of the Ghana Universal Salary Structure (GUSS).

He said the CMB in a letter dated July 4, 2003 signed by its Acting Chairman, Dr Francis Agble admitted that most of the grades of the Staff at the Commission differed significantly from the classification recommended by the PriceWaterhouseCoopers Consultants.

The letter said: "For example, a messenger who is placed on Level One and a Senior Caretaker on Level three were to be put on Level six and eight, respectively."

The letter from CMB also admitted that many grades, which were in the Structure used by the Consultants, could not be found in the Proposed Salary Structure of the Commission, while there were several grades in the new proposed structure that had not been graded by the Consultants.

Mr Ekpedzor said workers were, therefore, demanding a new salary structure that would conform to the GUSS to address the discrepancies they suffered under the PriceWaterHouseCoopers report.