GNA WORKERS FIGHT FOR SALARY INCREASE (P.55) 18-09-08

Story: Kofi Yeboah

WORKERS of the Ghana News Agency (GNA) are agitating for salary increase.
The workers expressed disappointment at the failure of the management to act on a proposal for salary increase they submitted to it a couple of months ago, but instead, it was asking them to wait for the implementation of the Single-Spine Salary Structure in January, 2009.
In a letter submitted to the management on Tuesday, September 16, 2008, the local union of the Communications Workers Union requested a meeting between the workers and management to discuss the issue.
The latest agitation for salary increase follows a circular issued by the management informing the workers that the implementation of the Single-Spine Salary Structure would take effect in January, next year.
The circular, which is pasted on the notice boards at the GNA offices in Accra, made reference to the Director in charge of Public Sector Salary, Mr Oku-Asare, as having given the assurance that the Single-Spine Salary Structure would be implemented in January 2009.
But the workers are taking that assurance with a pinch of salt, expressing the fear that a new government might either not implement the proposed salary structure at all or at the scheduled time.
Therefore, they did not see why they should rely on the proposed salary structure while they continued to reel under poor salary.
The workers said the internally proposed salary review was similar to that of the Single-Spine Salary Structure, explaining that if the former was implemented now, it would only be a matter of switching over to the latter when its implementation was due.
The proposal seeks to correct anomalies in the salaries of the workers, which came about after a previous review of the salary structure, and also to stem the high staff turnover as a result of low salary.
According to them, when the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mr Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, visited the GNA offices sometime in July this year, he requested for the salary review proposal made by the workers to enable him to study and facilitate its implementation.
They, however, accused the management of not acting on the minister’s good gesture.