Oguaa Civil Servants wear red bands

Cape Coast, April 20, GNA-Civil servants in the Cape Coast municipality on Thursday started wearing red bands in protest against the government's recent decision that the proposed monetization policy, would cover only chief directors and directors, in the civil service and not all civil servants.

The decision to wear the red band was taken at an emergency meeting held on Thursday by the central regional and Cape Coast municipal secretariats of the Civil Servants' Association (CSA). Mr. William Afram, regional secretary of the CSA, stressed the need for all category of civil servants to benefit from the policy as earlier promised by the government.

He, in that regard, called on the government not to renege on its promise because, workers in the "lower ranks were the people who did almost all the work in the civil service".

According to him the red bands, were a warning to the government, to, as a matter of urgency, include all categories of civil servants in the implementation of the policy, and said a decision on their next line of action, would be taken at the regional delegates congress next Wednesday.

However, in an earlier address, Ms Agnes Amankwa, Cape Coast Municipal chairperson of the association, pleaded with her colleagues not to take any harsh stance on the issue to undermine actions being taken by the national executive on the issue. She reminded them that the Executive Secretary of the Association, Mr Smart Chigabatia, had already called on the government to comprehensively implement its monetization policy by the end of the month.

In this year's budget statement, the government, promised to implement a new salary structure for civil servants, termed monetization, to put more money in their pockets.