Public sector workers have cautioned government to abandon its plans to pay them through the E-zwich system.
The workers contend that the E-zwich payment system is dysfunctional and cannot be a medium for the payment of salaries.
The Controller and Accountant-General has served notice that it will begin paying public sector works through the E-zwich payment system at the end of May.
[contextly_sidebar id=”un3H3iU0fT00qfGGSnQLjGZQMcpw7fXy”]But the workers say they cannot assess their salaries should the directive be implemented.
Addressing a press conference, the Chairman of the forum, which consists of twelve labour unions, Isaac Bampoe Addo, said workers were not consulted before the directive was issued.
“Knowing that most of the service centers for the E-zwich are dysfunctional and the desire to link with other ATM service centers have not received total endorsement by the financial institutions, the attempt at the imposition of the E-Zwich ‘KaKai’ was untimely and without regard to the tenets of policy implementation”, he said.
He wondered why government will compel employees to use the system as a medium to receive their salaries.
“Aware that the E-Zwich experiment started three years ago and had been posing immense problems without a possible solution in sight for public service workers who opted for it, the attempt at a unilateral imposition of the programme on workers within the public service is heartless and devoid of consideration of hardships being encountered by users of the E-Zwich card”, he said.
The forum further called on government not to delete the name of any worker from the payroll adding that “public service workers have the right to voluntarily choose to belong to the E-Zwich programme or otherwise”.
Members of the forum include the Health Service Workers’ Union, Ghana Registered Nurses Association, Ghana Medical Association, Ghana Physician Assistants Association and the Ghana Pharmacists Association.
Others are the Ghana Association of Certified Registered Anesthetists, Ghana National Association of Teachers, Teachers and Educational Workers Union, National Association of Graduate Teachers, Coalition of Concerned Teachers, Judicial Service Staff Association of Ghana and the Civil and Local Government Staff Association of Ghana.
Teachers ‘reject’ payment of salaries via E-zwich
The Coalition of Concerned Teacher (CCT), had earlier warned of labour unrest if the Controller and Accountant General’s Department goes ahead to approve the use of the E-zwich platform to pay teachers.
According to CCT, the E-zwich payment system is fraught with technical challenges which make it difficult for teachers already on it to access their salaries.
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By: Franklin Badu Jnr/citifmonline.com/Ghana