The Fair Wages and Salaries Commission is calling on agitated teacher unions who are calling for negotiations on the 2021 base pay rate to use the appropriate channels to initiate the process.
The National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), wants the Commission to immediately begin negotiations on the base pay for 2021.
NAGRAT is also demanding a 25 percent increase in the current base pay pegged at GH¢10.19 for 2021.
The President of NAGRAT, Angel Carbonu, in an earlier interview with Citi News lamented the poor conditions of service of public sector workers.
He said the current economic hardships demanded a twenty-five percent increment for the 2021 base pay.
“We are calling on the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission and the Public Sector Joint negotiations committee as a whole to quickly reconvene for us to negotiate the base pay for 2021. As a union, we will not shy away from indicating that looking at the economic situation and the challenges that Ghanaian teachers face we will negotiate the base pay for 2021 with a 21% increment. So NAGRAT is calling on all stakeholders to arrange a meeting to discuss this.”
But the Chief Executive Officer of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, Dr. Edward Kwapong, in a Citi News interview called on NAGRAT to use the appropriate channels to trigger re-negotiation of the base pay.
“There is an approved procedure or structure for handling these matters. If they want us to meet, they should trigger the process, and they are part of organised labour. So when they trigger the process, we will oblige.”
“Nothing new has come so if they think the time as come for us to come together, they should do the needful.”