The strike ‘drums’ beat again

The issues, according to NAGRAT, included the payment of vehicle maintenance allowance, market premium for teachers under the SSPP and annual incremental credits for teachers.

The facts are clear that the biggest chunk of the national budget is allocated to the educational sector, with about 80 per cent of that budget being used for recurrent expenditure, including the payment of salaries.

We are worried that since the implementation of the SSPP, some of the beneficiaries have raised issues with the policy, claiming that it has not addressed their concerns.

Now and then, however, reference is made to the SSPP as a major policy intervention that has raised the salaries of personnel of the security services and other public sector workers.

At other times, we hear of complaints from public sector workers about the inability of the policy to iron out all their concerns over poor working conditions in their organisations.

NAGRAT, at the press conference, urged the public to appreciate its concerns, as it was not out to blackmail the government.

It is heart-warming to hear that the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) have indicated their readiness to engage the leadership of NAGRAT with the view to finding an amicable resolution to the threat to embark on strike.

Many public sector workers had expected that the implementation of the SSPP would end al the challenges they had with their salaries, but that was not to be, as other issues keep coming up.

Nonetheless, all concerned public sector workers should take consolation from the explanation by the Chief Executive of the FWSC, Mr George Smith-Graham, that the policy is not just an event but a process, saying that extra care would have to be taken to address the challenges in order not to distort the policy.

The Daily Graphic thinks that when it comes to rewards and productivity, all the social partners seem to be doing certain things in the wrong direction. Workers pretend to be working, while their employers pretend to be paying them.

We think that although increased productivity will rake in more revenue to pay workers better, an improved reward system will motivate employees to work harder.

Ghana has a long way to go to provide the basic needs for the people. The well-being of the people can only be attained with improved levels of revenue, and that can only be achieved through more dedication to work.

We should avoid idling, absenteeism and dozing behind our desks and instead put our hands to the plough to produce more for consumption and for export.

When everybody is adequately catered for through our collective efforts to produce more, the frequent resort to strikes to resolve our grievances will be a thing of the past.

It is too early in the year to disturb the industrial scene with the threat of laying down our tools. All the same, we urge all the stakeholders, especially the FWSC, the GES and the National Labour Commission (NLC), to help arrest the threat of a strike by NAGRAT.

The Daily Graphic appeals to members for NAGRAT not to hold any entrenched position when they get to the negotiation table.

We know teachers need improved conditions of service, but we urge them to think of the future of the students under their care in school, especially when WASSCE is just around the corner.