Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, has announced a 7% increase in the base pay of public sector employees for 2022.
Ignatius Baffour-Awuah said that the four percent raise planned previously in 2021 would be increased to seven percent.
Ignatius Baffour Awuah, President of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), announced the increase at the 90th Anniversary ceremony in Kumasi.
“In return, we had to negotiate with the leadership of Organised Labour, and in the process, we had to agree that we had to be modest in our request on the national kitty. The beautiful thing is that we are moving on, and we had agreed that coming into this current year, the 4 percent will no longer exist and that we are going to give workers 7 percent which is an increment. It is my hope and belief that things begin to work better for the economy of our country, so we can give our workforce a better remuneration we can actually be proud of,” Mr. Awuah said.
As part of labor discussions with the government, the Trade Union Congress (TUC) agreed on base pay increments for public sector employees in 2021.
However, after the agreement, several labor union members voiced dissatisfaction with the percentage rise, claiming it was too little.
Thus, in 2021, a coalition of public sector employees marched to voice their outrage and seek an increase in public sector salary.
They claimed that the four to seven percent raise is grossly insufficient for their livelihood in light of the present economic downturn.
On Wednesday, August 18, 2021, a similar demonstration was held by the group in Accra to drum home their demands against the base pay increase.
The organization bemoaned the fact that the TUC’s leadership, which is intended to represent the interests of Ghanaian workers, has instead become a mouthpiece for the government.
Instead, they advocated for a 25% pay increase in the public sector.
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SOURCE: CITINEWS
