Gamey to government: Expedite action on CLOGSAG strike before it escalates

Austin Gamey, a labour expert has advised the government to act swiftly before the ongoing strike by the Civil and Local Government Staff Association, Ghana (CLOGSAG) escalates.

Members of CLOGSAG have been on industrial action over the non-payment of neutrality allowance since Thursday ( 21 April).

Talking to Kwaku Nhyira-Addo on the Asaase Breakfast Show on Wednesday (27 April), Gamey blamed the development on the introduction of the market premium in the country.

“This market premium has become an albatross hanging on the neck of everybody. I recall I was present at a meeting with the late J.H. Mensah and many others, and I told them that if you introduced this market premium, you will create upheaval in the country,” he said.

“They took it for granted, and we are living with it. With the best intention that they had, they could have maybe adjusted the base pay rather, because this nomenclature is based on base pay, which is a variable pay…”

Gamey added “So something drastic needs to be done to prevent the consequences of the risk we have plunged ourselves in now …they didn’t count the cost very well …so I suggest strongly that something ought to be done to prevent it from escalating further because it cannot just be pushed away. It will create a problem for the whole nation.”

Listen to Austin Gamey in the audio below:

“Negotiate for better salaries”

Meanwhile, a labour expert Yiadom Boakye Ansah has said the Civil and Local Government Staff Association, Ghana (CLOGSAG) must negotiate for a consolidated salary that comes with a better retirement package than pursuing allowances in addition to their wages.

Ansah said CLOGSAG must stop the over dependence on allowances and rather negotiate for better salaries in order to avert being worse off after retirement.

His call comes after CLOGSAG embarked on a day’s industrial action over non payment of neutrality allowance.

“Already we have a very long allowances list that single spine tried to correct at a point in time,” Ansah said on The Asaase Breakfast Show on Monday (25 April).

“What single spine did was to categorise all allowances into four…, but at the time of implementation, the arrangement was that all category one allowances should be part of pay,.. just like neutrality allowance,” he said.

“So, if we had followed that programme, then with time we would have taken away most allowances, leaving only category 4, and that would have helped us to clean up the remuneration part.”

“So, the discussion should move from a consolidated type of salary rather than a split salary with several allowances. Now you take the money and spend and then when you retire you are given GHC500 to take care of yourself in a month, so we should stop the pretense,” Ansah told Asaase Radio’s Kwaku Nhyira-Addo.

He described the call for a neutrality allowance as misplaced.

Listen to Yiadom Boakye Ansah in the attached file below:

Fred Dzakpata

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