The “National Association of Graduate Teachers” (NAGRAT) and the “Coalition of Concerned Teachers Ghana” (CCT-GH) have spoken loud and clear about the current salary adjustment made to public sector workers' income, especially members of the teaching profession.
According to the two giant teacher unions, the 7% increment for the year 2022 is not enough for the teachers in Ghana.
In a joint press statement released by the two labour unions and sighted by Bricy Boateng, the presidents of the unions explained that the downturn of Ghana's economy post Covid-19 has made things hard for the Ghanaian teacher.
Elaborating further, they told the media that there are hikes in the prices of goods and services, depreciation of the dollar by 20.8% from GH 5. 8 to GHC 7.5, increased in the price of a bag of cement from GH¢ 40 in 2021 to GH¢ 52 in 2022 indicating a GH¢ 12.50 more by 30.5%, increment of fuel prices among many other things have put a burden on the teacher's meagre salary.
Significantly, they mentioned that the cost of rent and accommodation have also seen a rise thus, putting a heavy burden on the Ghanaian workers because the country does not have a comprehensive housing scheme to support the low-income earner.
According to the leaders of these teacher unions, all of these have accounted for the reasons why the salaries of public sector workers cannot even take them home (not enough sustain them throughout the month).
The unions have therefore called on the Government to immediately and dispassionately look at her expenditure and also, as a matter of urgency, sit with the labour unions to discuss how possibly best to increase the salaries of workers to commensurate with the upsurge of prices of goods and services on the market.
In a related development, the two unions have boycotted the Labour Conference currently being organized by the Minstry of Labour and Employment at the Rock City Hotel in Kwahu, Eastern Region. They two unions expressed their disappointments in the government over the issues being talked about in the conference, stating that it does not deal with the pertinent issues affecting public workers in the country.
By BricyBoateng (Self-Media Writer)