The National Labour Commission (NLC) has cautioned the leadership of the Civil and Local Government Service Staff Association of Ghana (CLOGSAG), to call off its strike or face a legal action.
CLOGSAG members have laid down their tools to force the Employment and Labour Ministry to pay them their interim premium allowances, but the NLC has described the two-week strike as illegal.
“We have also invited the party to appear tomorrow [Wednesday], for the resolution of the substantive matter, that is whether or not they are entitled to be paid the intended market premium. Then also we are expecting them to call off the strike action, if they do not, the law requires us to file an application at the high court to enforce the directive of the NLC and we shall not hesitate to do that,” Executive Director of the Labour Commission, Charles Bawa Duah said.
[contextly_sidebar id=”55cmLmEemCRmEp6MIdVZE3Iw1vL1huW1″]Speaking to Citi News, Charles Bawa Duah noted that, they will meet with CLOGSAG and the various parties involved on Wednesday, to deliberate on the way forward.
“We expect the parties to appear and present their various positions as to the claims they are making to enable the commission to resolve the matter. We also expect that CLOGSAG would appear and tell the Commission that they have called off the strike action. If they fail to show up, we will proceed to deal with the matter, a party cannot frustrate or thwart the work of the labour commission by staying away. If they stay away, the law requires us to proceed to deal with the matter,” he added.
Forfeit your August salary if…
The Employment and Labour Relations Ministry has already threatened to withhold the August salaries of CLOGSAG members if the strike continues.
Nonetheless, the association has remained adamant.
The sector Minister, Haruna Iddrisu, said, “while we recognize the right to make public manifestation and pronouncements of their unhappiness, we are unable to accommodate further the strike. And in particular they must compensate for an illegal strike for not working for the period of August.”
“Accordingly, I have directed the head of civil service and the head of local government service to begin a head count and an audit from tomorrow and to submit same on Friday to my office for advice to the Controller and Ministry of Finance that we will not compensate for that unproductive behavior. They should return to work or forfeit August salaries,” the Minister insisted.
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin