| Protesting members of the Civil and Local Government Staff Association, Ghana (CLOGSAG) yesterday clashed with the Police in Accra when the security agents detailed to cover their march prevented them from reaching the seat of government, Osu Castle, to hand their petition to President John Evans Atta Mills. This is the latest in the series of industrial actions that have dogged the little over one-and-half-year-old Mills administration, as university teachers also take their pound of flesh from the administration. Just as the protestors were battling it out with police, their counterparts in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis advised Ghanaians to look for another party, saying that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was not reliable. They were protesting against the irregularities in the new pay policy, the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS). The demonstrators appealed to the Ghanaian electorate to vote the NDC out of power in 2012. They explained that the John Evans Atta Mills-led NDC government was insensitive to the plight of the ordinary Ghanaian, alleging that the implementation of inhumane economic policies by the government, coupled with poor conditions of service of civil servants, had brought untold hardships to majority of Ghanaians. According to the civil servants, the only way for Ghanaians to have improved the standard of living and enjoy the fruits of their labour was to vote the NDC out of power. “We are appealing to all Ghanaians not to give in to the lies and deceits of the current NDC government but let’s vote them out of power. They promised a better Ghana and now we are experiencing a bitter Ghana,” one of the demonstrators told DAILY GUIDE. The fuming protesters would not have the explanation by the security agents that they could not be allowed to get to where they described as a ‘restricted zone’. They pointed at examples of demonstrators allowed access to the place and therefore found the excuse untenable, adding that “we are a disciplined, respected people who work for the government. We are not rioters.” The security agents stood their ground and stopped the march at the Independence Square. The membership of CLOGSAG are pressing their demand to hold unconditional negotiations with the Fair Wages & Salaries Commission (FW&SC) on their remunerations and conditions of service for 2010, a request which they claimed was being denied them. In a petition signed by the Acting President of the association, Tennyson Foli, they stated “the Civil and Local Government Staff Association, Ghana, humbly and respectfully prays for the intervention of Your Excellency the President to urge the FW&SC to unconditionally open negotiations with CLOGSAG on the salaries and other negotiations of service for its members for the year 2010, without any further delay, on the basis that section 178 (1) of the Labour Act 2002 (Act 651) does not take away the bargaining power or rights of the Association.” They found as untenable the coercion and intimidation of their leaders by the FW&SC to undertake negotiation through the Trade Union Congress (TUC) of Ghana which, according to them, they are not a part of. They said since the 1992 Constitution, the supreme law of the country, guaranteed freedom of association, “the FW&SC cannot compel the association to negotiate their salaries and other conditions of service of its members through the TUC”. As an association with a population of 45,000 countrywide, the body bears the responsibility for the formulation and implementation of government policies and programmes. Being a separate and unified entity with no affiliation to the Trades’ Union Congress (TUC), they maintained that CLOGSAG remained the mouthpiece of workers in the Civil and Local Government Services and formed a part of the Public Service of Ghana. Previous negotiations with government for enhanced salaries and other conditions of service, they observed, came to naught. Under the Public Service (Negotiation Committees) Law, 1992 (PNDC Law 309), they held that as representatives of workers of the Civil and Local Government services, they are entitled to a negotiating committee to negotiate salaries and other conditions of service in fulfillment of International Labour Organisation Convention 151. The law, they explained, excluded any Public Service which, before the coming into effect of the law, had mechanisms for the negotiation of salaries and other conditions of service. They did not understand why there should be a reduction in the placement of members of CLOGSAG by the FW&SC in the implementation of new pay policy. Hundreds of distressed civil servants, mostly clad in red T-shirts and wristbands and wielding placards, took part in the about-three-hour peaceful demonstration which was replicated across the country. They marched through the principal streets of Sekondi-Takoradi amidst brass-band music from the Takoradi Jubilee Park to the offices of the Western Regional Co-ordinating Council in Sekondi, a distance of about four miles, where they presented their petition to the deputy Western Regional Minister, Betty Bosumtwi-Sam. Some of the placards had inscriptions like ‘120 per cent Increase in Utilities, 10 per cent Across Board Salary Increase, Na Why?’, ‘Don’t Impose Single Spine Salary On Us’, ‘Justice Delayed, Justice Denied’ and ‘Reduce Tariffs On Wages and Salaries, We’re Dying Mr. President’. Presenting the petition, Kwamena Otu Odoom, Regional Secretary of CLOGSAG, mentioned that on 23rd April 2010, the association held a meeting with the Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, where it was agreed that CLOGSAG would remain on the Ghana Universal Salary Structure (GUSS), pending ratification of their proper placement. It was also agreed that the negotiations should be opened for the association to discuss the 2010 salary levels on the basis of the GUSS structure and to set up a technical committee to address the concerns raised by the association. Betty Bosumtwi-Sam commended them for the peaceful demonstration and assured the association that their petition would be presented to the President for redress. |