NAGRAT threatens strike over 20% COLA and base pay

National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) has threatened to declare full-blown strike if government fails to grant members 20% Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) as they gave end of June 2022 deadline.

Read the full statement by NAGRAT

7th June, 2022

PRESS CONFERENCE ADDRESSED BY THE
VICE PRESIDENT OF NAGRAT(MR. JACOB ANABA)

Distinguished Media Friends, we have invited you once again, to inform the government and the good people of Ghana through your esteem forum that, the Ghanaian Teacher is under pervasive Economic hardship. If you may recall this is not the first Press Conference, we are addressing to inform Government about our suffering. In November 2021, when prices of goods and services started escalating, NAGRAT made the call for upwards adjustment in salaries to cushion workers.
Similar calls were made by other Labour Unions, notably CCT, TEWU and GNAT.

The last call was made on May Day by the Secretary-General of TUC, who is the mouthpiece of Organised Labour. The Secretary-General repeated the call for the Government to grant COLA to the Ghanaian worker to alleviate the excruciating suffering Ghanaian Workers are going through in the presence of, HE Nana Akuffo Addo, the President of Ghana.

The President had earlier said and I quote, “we (government) know how to bring the economy back to life. What we do not know is how to bring people back to life”. The question is what has changed?

Mr. President, your people (workers) are dying, please attend to them now and do not prioritise the Economy over the human resource.
The worker can no longer bear the economic hardship.

This situation has resulted in the rank and file of our membership calling for a positive action. Therefore, we are by this conference serving notice to those who matter that, their ineptitude towards the call by the Unions to grant COLA to the suffering Ghanaian Worker is leaving us no alternative than to respond to the incessant demands of our members

We therefore demand that, as a matter of urgency the Government must grant workers a Cost Of Living Allowance (COLA) of 20% at the end of June 2022.

Secondly, we demand that the National Tripartite Committee, a body mandated by law, per Section 113 of the Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651) must as a matter of urgency, determine the new minimum wage for the year 2023 by the middle of June 2022.

Thirdly, the Public Sector Joint Negotiations Committee must kick start processes for the determination of Base pay for the year 2023 before 30 June, 2022.

Leadership would be left with no option than to declare a strike by the end of July 2022, if all the requests made are not adhered to.

Leadership hereby yields to the demand of members for positive action, beginning with the wearing of red bands by the end of June 2022, if the demands made are not met.

We further instruct all our Regional and Zonal Secretariats to hoist red flags in front of our offices with immediate effect.