Ghana hit by wave of public sector strikes

News

For the third consecutive week, public sector workers in Ghana have embarked on a series of coordinated industrial actions.

Primary and secondary school teachers, university lecturers, doctors and pharmacists are all demanding the payment of salary arrears and better work conditions from the government.

The strikes were triggered by a new public sector pay reform called the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS).

Implemented by the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), the pay reform came into effect in January 2010 with the aim of harmonising discrepancies in public sector wages.

However, some Ghanaian labour unions felt cheated by the new pay structure.

Primary and secondary school teachers, for instance, have complained about the freezing of the automatic salary increments which used to occur at the beginning of each academic year.

The SSSS has also proved to be very costly.

Last month, Ghana’s Finance Minister Seth Terkper told parliament that the introduction of the SSSS created a situation where the public sector wage bill ballooned to 72.3 percent of all tax revenues – including oil –as of December 2012.

Over the last decade, Ghana has become one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, aided by the recent discovery of oil.

It is now classified as a lower middle-income country with an estimated GDP (in 2012) of 40 billion US dollars.

However, the cost of living has also increased over the last seven years due to rising fuel costs and the removal of government subsidies on fuel and utilities.

Of Ghana’s 24 million-strong population, about 26 per cent are living in poverty.

 

Teachers’ first

The first group of public sector workers to go on strike was the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT).

Their indefinite action began on 18 March to press home the demand for a resolution to matters concerning the non-negotiation of a new collective agreement for teachers employed by the Ghana Education Service (GES), conditions of service, retention premiums, car maintenance allowances, and the payment of a market premium to cushion teachers from the high cost of living.

On 25 March, Ghanaian President John Mahama met with strike leaders to discuss the way forward.

The union agreed to call off their action and returned to the classroom.

Since then, teachers’ union leaders have confirmed that government is working on addressing their grievances.

But less than a week after NAT and NAGRAT returned to work, members of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) began an indefinite strike in support of their demand for the immediate payment of all salary arrears since 2012.

The UTAG was enraged when they found out that the government had issued about 23 million US dollars in ex gratia payments to 230 former MPs but could not raise the 5 million US dollars in arrears due to them.

University students across the country publicly displayed their solidarity with their striking lecturers, releasing a statement in support of the action.

The UTAG has since returned to work.

 

In poor health

Most recently, the health sector has been hit by a wave of industrial unrest.

Doctors and pharmacists are currently on strike, and nurses are preparing to join them if their demands for better pay are not met.

On 7 April, the National Executive Committee of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) rolled-out the first phase of its industrial action by withdrawing all out-patient services, only attending to emergencies and in-patients from 8 to 14 April.

On 22 April, the union activated the final stage, suspending all emergency services, while in-patients care continues until patients are discharged.

The action, GMA President Dr Frank Serebour said in an interview with the Ghanaian state-owned newspaper the Daily Graphic, was “necessitated by the refusal of the government to pay current market premiums on 2012 basic salaries, contrary to the ruling of the National Labour Commission (NLC), to pay market premium arrears accrued from January 2012 to date, correct the reduced pension contributions of its members and pay doctors their conversion difference.”

At a meeting between the GMA, the government and the Trades Union Congress (TUC) on 11 April, all parties agreed that “… the issue of Conversion Difference and Pension is being dealt with by the Single Spine Post-Migration Technical Committee. Government and the Ghana Medical Association will ensure commitment to the process.”

The latest to wade into the impasse is the former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. As a prominent Ghanaian, Annan called for an immediate end to the ongoing GMA strike and urged all parties to find a solution to end the stalemate.