By Rachel Kakraba
The industrial action by Civil and Local Government Staff Association, Ghana, CLOGSAG, is biting hard on Government Agencies and Departments. The once busy offices such as the Registrar-General’s Department, today bore the semblance of a cemetery, as business has ground to a halt, a development which is adversely having a toll on revenue generation for the country. The Association in a statement, prior to the strike noted that the Neutrality Allowance has not been effected as agreed upon. CLOGSAG started the negotiation in 2019, which ended early last year.
An agreement was signed in January, this year with an effective date of February, 2022. The inability of Government to work with the February implementation date sparked the strike. Consequently, on the 21st of this month a nationwide strike commenced with an indication that it will be called off only, when Government makes a commitment to pay the allowances due them. The “Neutrality Allowance” as explained by Executive- Secretary of the Association, Bampoe Addo, is to ensure that civil and Local Government workers do not engage in partisanship in their various offices.
It is also to ensure that civil servants discharge their duties professionally without getting involved in partisan activities. This is the very reason the strike by CLOGSAG has in the last couple of days generated public debate with divided opinion on the relevance of such an allowance. That notwithstanding, after several meetings between major stakeholders, Government agreed to pay the Neutrality Allowance to CLOGSAG, because it has shown good faith. Already thirty-six organizations under the Public Services Workers Union, PSWU, have made a strong case for the payment of Political Neutrality Allowance for qualified members. PSWU argues that, the Constitution and other enabling Acts and Law’s require them to be politically neutral.
It maintains that payment of such allowance to a section of the workforce to the neglect of others in the same or similar category will defeat the underlying principles of Salary Administration in Ghana. Some Experts, Organization and Individuals have also punched holes into the argument of CLOSSAG and why it should be paid neutrality allowance. For instance, Director of Advocacy and Policy Engagement at the Centre for Democratic Development Ghana, Dr. Kojo Asante, has expressed shock at the decision of Government to pay an allowance of a responsibility imposed on CLOGSAG by the Constitution.
For him any move at paying such an allowance creates a certain unfairness, which affects morale in the public sector. He has therefore encouraged CLOGSAG to channel its energies into demanding a level playing field regarding service conditions among public sector workers. Vice President of Imani Africa, Kofi Bentil, is also of the view, Government should not have tolerated the demands of CLOGSAG. In believing the Single Spine Pay Policy has failed, he argues, that policy makers should instead focus on resolving the fundamental problems in the entire pay policy of public sector workers. In similar arguments, social media platforms have been inundated with arguments on the Neutrality
Allowance demands by CLOGSAG. In one such Facebook post a Ghanaian US-based Professor, Kwaku Asare, wonders how “Ghana’s civil service has been so politicized such that civil servants are demanding to be paid political neutrality allowance. He asks the government to be careful to prevent unnecessary demands. Maybe it is some of these arguments that has brought to the fore the need for some amendments. As already Head of Local Government Services, Dr Nana Ato Arthur, is courting plans for a change of the name ‘Neutrality Allowance’, saying the terminology does not sit well with Government. Deputy Minister of Finance Dr. John Kumah has also refuted suggestions that the “Neutrality Allowance as demanded by CLOGSAG, is to compensate them not to engage in political activities. Explaining that it was a term arrived at by the committee set up to address the demands of the association in relation to salary disparity faced by CLOGSAG members as compared to other workers. Meanwhile, reacting to some of these criticisms and opposition to the Neutrality Allowance at a news conference in Accra, Executive Secretary of CLOGSAG, Isaac Bampoe Addo, asked persons who do not understand the neutrality allowance being offered to civil servants, to “go and sleep” because it was justified at the negotiation table. A cheeky response indeed, but in situations where the interest of labour is concerned, it is expected that, whatever should be enjoyed by all, should not be given to a section alone, lest the whole industrial atmosphere be polluted with rancorous division and agitations.
As pressure mounts on CLOGSAG from all quarters to the legitimacy of the neutrality allowance, it will be prudent for leaderships of the unions to exercise some restraint in responding to criticism. In fact, it can be said that, the bargaining power of CLOGSAG is exemplary and worth emulating by other unions. They knew what was due them and put forward their arguments, justified it and triumphed. Other major stakeholders represented at the negotiation table such as the Fair Wages and Salary Commission, Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations as well as Ministry of Finance, all took the CLOGSAG’s arguments into consideration before the conclusion to pay the Neutrality Allowance to Association. The tension that the Neutrality allowance demands by CLOGSAG has generated is simply put, unnecessary. If the wider unions knew what was due them, but failed to act on it, how is that a problem of CLOGSAG? Solidarity and unity are the clarion call of Labour, are these working in the Labour Unions of Ghana?
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