Striking workers of the Civil and Local Government Staff Association (CLOGSAG) have called the bluff of the Employment Minister who has threatened to withhold their August salaries.
Public Relations Officer of CLOGSAG Edmund Acquaye told Joy News the threat by the minister is in breach of the employer and employee relationship.
Workers of CLOGSAG declared a strike on July 27 in protest over non-payment of market premiums-monies paid to workers whose skills or expertise are in short supply.
But the National Labour Commission has described the strike as illegal.
The Employment Minister Haruna Iddrisu later told Joy News the workers must call off the strike and return to work.
He said he will liaise with the head of the Civil Service to conduct a roll call of all workers present at work before they will make the August salary payment.
But in a response Mr Acquaye said the conduct of both the minister and the NLC is in “bad faith.”
He said at no point did the NLC inform them about the supposed illegality of the strike and chided the NLC for informing the media rather than communicating to them.
“As I speak to you now we have not received any official correspondence from the NLC that our strike is illegal.
In any case how many days has it taken the NLC to declare our strike illegal? We declared the strike on 27th of July. Today is the 8th of August. Two weeks down the line you are now informing us our strike is illegal? he asked.
Edmund Acquaye said the aggrieved workers do not care whether their strike is legal or not. All they want is their money.
“We are talking about people who are aggrieved for the past three years. When people are aggrieved, you know the extent they can go,” he stated.
According to him, government through the Fair Wages Commission agreed to pay 15% market premiums to CLOGSAG members but nothing has been done in terms of implementation.
He wondered why government is dragging its feet in the implementation of the agreement.
Edmund Acquaye however dismissed assertions the strike is not biting hard enough at government.
“We are telling you that over a scale of 100 we have achieved a 90% strike impact,” he said.
He stated that CLOGSAG workers are ready to go the full hog, even if it means going 24 months without salaries in order to get their grievances addressed.
