Educational Workers Union adds voice for COLA

The Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) has added its voice for the call of payment of Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) to members to cushion them under the current economic challenges in the country.

“We wish to state that members have reached their limit in the face of the excruciating economic conditions in the country and cannot wait any longer. “Failure to respond positively to this call, the country’s educational sector stand to suffer and that will have a damming effect on final years of senior high schools in their preparations towards final examinations,” it said.

The call by TEWU followed that of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) for the payment of COLA to members in the face of economic challenges.

Warning

A statement signed by the General Secretary of the TEWU, Mark D. Korankye, said the leaders had resolved that by the end of this month, “if no response is heard from the government, members of the TEWU will have no other option than to lay down their tools until the COLA hits their accounts”.

The leadership of TEWU, it said wanted to put on record that it had made frantic appeals to the government since September 2021, as well as early this year and even before the 2022 May Day national celebrations that the skyrocketing prices of goods and services called for authorities to pay COLA to workers to enable them to cope with the challenging economic conditions.

“Unfortunately, these appeals have not received any positive response, not even an acknowledgement of the union appeals by the government, especially the sector minister, that is, the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations.

“Again, at the 2022 National May Day parade at the Black Star Square in Accra, the Secretary-General of the TUC, Brother Anthony Yaw Baah, reiterated the issue of COLA to the President and his team present, but still, there is deafening silence from the corridors of power,” he said.

Treatment

The statement said as leaders of public sector workers, they could not sit down for their members to be subjected to this treatment of no action from the government to support them through COLA to deal with the worsening economic situation.

“The oil that helps the wheel of the economy to rotate is the workers’ sweat, so it is painful for this treatment to workers by the government, with the complete silence on the various appeals for the authorities to pay workers COLA.

“We, therefore, urge the government that the earlier it respond positively to this COLA demand the better it will be for the country in our education sector,” it said.