Following a series of discussions with organized labor, the government has agreed to a thirty percent rise in base pay for the 2023 fiscal year. The raise will take effect on January 1, 2023.
This comes after eleven rounds of fruitless discussions between both parties, which were followed by a meeting with Organised Labour on Thursday, January 12.
“There has been a thirty percent rise to the basic wage for the 2023 fiscal year…
Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, the Minister of Employment, made the announcement not long after the decision was made. “As I mentioned, this comes to an end with the 2022 COLA of 15% of base pay income,” Baffour-Awuah said.
The government and labor unions have come to an agreement on a 30% raise for basic salaries.
At the outset of the discussions for the base pay, organized labor wanted a sixty percent (60%) increase in their salary and refused to back down on their demand despite multiple engagements with the government.
After rejecting the original proposal made by the government, which was for 18%, the employees in the public sector opted to lower their initial demand of 60% to 58%.
The government and organized labor have reached an agreement on a basic salary rise of thirty percent.
However, following a meeting with the government on Thursday, which included Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, who had been absent from all of the previous meetings, Organized Labor agreed to a 30% increase in the base pay, despite having vowed not to back down on their demand.
This occurred despite the fact that they had previously stated that they would not back down on their demand. The General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Dr. Yaw Baah, has thanked the government for this new improvement.
“The leadership of organized labor would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to the government for giving a 30% raise in base pay for public sector workers for the year 2023. We are relieved that everything was able to be resolved amicably today.
“The 30%, despite the fact that it is not what we want, will provide the chance for us to speak one language so that we can collaborate.”
Dr. Isaac Bampoe-Addo, the Executive Secretary of the Civil and Local Government Staff Association of Ghana (CLOGSAG), delivered the following statement to the government delegation:
“We want to assure the government that we will collaborate with them and come up with ideas to improve revenue generation.” When we get together again to negotiate base pay, we are certain that things will have improved by then.
During the discussion, the Minister of Finance brought up the fact that the increase will place a burden on the country's financial resources.
“As I indicated before, this would have a significant impact on the budget; nevertheless, we are optimistic that we would be able to increase productivity and the promise that we both have given to each other to make sure that there is peace in this nation as we look at pension and labor concerns.”
The administration announced through this decision that the 15% cost of living allowance (COLA) for workers in the public sector will no longer be given.
