Dr Yaw Baah, the Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), has expressed gratitude to the government for the 30% pay raise for public sector employees.
He claimed that even if they had anticipated considerably more growth, the 30% will spur workers to put in extra effort to get the economy back to where it was before the Covid outbreak.
Speaking after the announcement of the increment in Accra on Thursday, January 12, he said “Even though the 30 per cent is not what ideally we wanted, it will create that opportunity for us to speak one language and work together to make sure our country recovers to where we were before the Covid.
“On behalf of my people, I would like to say a big thank you to the government for this offer, we are very grateful.”
The government’s collaboration with labour unions to determine the 30% pay increase was acknowledged by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta.
He claimed that the government wanted to maintain harmony on the labour front, therefore the 30% raise.
In a meeting with labour unions on Thursday, January 12, Minister of Employment and Labor Relations Ignatius Baffour-Awuah announced the raise.
The raise becomes effective on January 1, 2023.
Mr Baffuor -Awuah said, “Since August last year, we started meeting to determine the base pay for 2023.
“This was after, in July, we had worked together to grant a COLA of 15 per cent, being a relief for hardships that the Ghanaian worker was enduring. It was our hope to have completed this negotiation by December 2022.
“Unfortunately, we were not able to finish but thankfully, today, we have worked together to come to a conclusion.
“I am happy to announce the outcome of our engagements. The base pay has been increased by 30% for the 2023 financial year.
“The effective date is 1st January 2023. As I said this brings to an end the 2022 COLA of 15% of base pay salary.”
Addressing the gathering after the announcement, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta said “As I mentioned this will take a toll on the budget, but we are confident that we would enhance productivity and the commitment that we both have given to each other to make sure that there is peace in this country as we look at pension and labour issues. I think we have come to a satisfying conclusion.
“I really will like to thank all of you for your commitment to that. Fiscal implications, of course, we will have to work with that but really, the issue of a peaceful environment for us to work is something that we treasure, we really applaud you for that.
“There are a lot of things that we have to do, and we really encourage that we continue with this sense of unity going forward and if, as a people, we continue to speak the same language then there will be nothing that will be impossible for us to do.”
Source: Mybrytnewsroom.com/Joseph Asare
