Moses Asaga
IT APPEARS there is no end in sight to the strike action embarked on by the Civil and Local Government Staff Association, Ghana (CLOGSAG) as members of the association in the Ashanti Region have joined the protest.
The national secretariat of the association declared an indefinite strike action in protest against distortions in their migration onto the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) about a week ago.
Declaring an indefinite sit-down-strike action on Friday, the Ashanti regional chairperson of CLOGSAG noted, “We are disappointed and alarmed that top-up allowance introduced to mitigate negative and insignificant changes, as was done for other public service institutions, has not been applied to the CLOGSAG members”.
Noting that public officers were made to believe that the SSSS was going to better their lot, Mercy Boakyewaa Acheampong stated, “We CLOGSAG members in the Ashanti Region are so disappointed, ill-motivated and down-hearted about the manner the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) has displayed, disaffection and disrespect towards the leadership and the entire membership of CLOGSAG on issues and concerns raised before and after our migration onto the SSSS”.
She said members had observed that the migration was incomplete even though it had been repeatedly announced by the government that all public sector officers would be placed on the new pay policy by December 2011.
She added, “According to the press statement issued by the national executive committee of our association on Friday January 27, 2012, the accounting class and the internal auditors within the civil and local government services, the non formal division of the ministry of education and some of our members within the Lands Commission, have not been migrated at all”.
Madam Boakyewaa said at the conference which was attended by members who wore red armbands, that all efforts by the leadership of the association to get the accounting class, internal auditors and some members within the Lands Commission migrated onto the SSSS had proved futile.
“The Ashanti regional executive council and rank and file of CLOGSAG are solidly behind our leadership on these genuine concerns that had been ignored all this while and we also call on the government to ensure, as a matter of urgency, that equity and fairness prevails in salaries and conditions of services for all public sector workers,” she stressed.
She added, “The Ashanti regional executive council and the entire members of CLOGSAG have thrown our unflinching support behind our leadership and have no option than joining the continuing sit-down strike until our concerns are fully addressed”.
From Morgan Owusu, Kumasi
