NAGRAT: Budget has not addressed our concerns

Accra, Nov. 17, GNA - The National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) on Friday said the 2007 Budget and Financial Statement did not address their concerns and described the setting up of a Fair Wage Commission to resolve the problems of salaries in the public sector as "the same old game" of governments.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in an interview, Mr Kwami Alorvi, National President of NAGRAT, said he did not see any difference between the new Commission, the Central Management Board (CMB) and the Appellate Body.

He said a major problem was that political favourites were appointed to these offices and when governments changed, they become ineffective.

"How different will be the work of the Fair Wage Commission from the CMB or Appellate Body in addressing the problems of public sector wages?" Mr Alorvi asked.

"I will not rejoice now on the establishment of the new Commission. Let us wait and see.... It is the same old game that governments have played on workers," he added.

Mr Alorvi said the rival teachers union, the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), have now realised that the government had not addressed their concerns and NAGRAT feels vindicated. He said they were waiting to see how the 13.2 trillion cedis salaries would be shared and how much teachers would get in new wages. The Ghana Education Service announced on November 9 that negotiations they were having with GNAT on salary proposals and collective agreement were still going on.

Mr Samuel Bannerman-Mensah, Chairman of the Joint Negotiating Committee, said teachers and the general public would be informed about the outcome "as soon as negotiations are concluded". However, GNAT has said GES had not returned to the negotiating table since November 3 when the GES Management sought to consult their principals.

The negotiations were being held for the conclusions to be fed into the Budget.

Government on Thursday unveiled the 2007 Budget and Financial Statement dubbed Golden Jubilee Budget, saying it was to promote growth and stability for all.

The government said the Budget would be used as the beginning of the solution to problems of salaries in the public sector. President John Agyekum Kufuor in a foreword to the Budget, said to ensure order and equity all round, the Government was setting up a Fair Wages Commission to oversee the implementation of this new programme. He noted that despite gains made by the Government, there were problems at the labour front, resulting partly from a distorted public sector salary structure, which was also poorly administered. The Government was therefore using the Budget to begin the implementation of a new comprehensive public sector pay reform that emphasises equal pay for work of equal worth.

"The broad objective is to aim for wage increases in line with productivity gains, cost effectiveness and efficiency."

President Kufuor quoted an adage, which says that "Rome was not built in a day", and said: "Today, we are laying the first block for a more rational salary structure and administration."

Members of NAGRAT last Monday ended a crippling 10-week strike that kept teachers away from the classrooms and put the future of students, especially SSS 3 students who would be writing their examinations in May/June next year, at risk.

This followed the intervention of the Ghana Conference of Religions for Peace led by Peter Cardinal Appiah Turkson, Archbishop of Cape Coast.

The strike action was to back demands on the government to review salaries of workers, especially those of teachers.

The graduate teachers also asked the Controller and Accountant General to stop the use of Auto Code that effects deductions from teachers' salaries and a replacement of the Acting Director of the GES, Mr Michael Nsowah, whose compulsory retirement was due last year. Other issues included the implementation of adjustment in salaries and ranks of Assistant Director and above, meaningful responsibility allowances to be put in place by the GES and its Council for all teachers and payment of arrears for teachers recruited in the 2003/2004 academic year.