The National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) has threatened to lay down its tools if the government fails to pay heed to their demand for the Cost of Living Allowance (CoLA) by the end of June 2022.
The Association said it had made persistent demand through different mediums to the government to pay the Cost of Living Allowance to help cushion its members and the workers in this hard economic condition but the government had been death years to their demands.
The NAGRAT said this at a press conference in Wa addressed by the Upper West Regional Chairman of the association, Mr Harun Ussif Kadiri.
He explained that the government’s insensitivity to the plight of the Ghanaian workers in the face of the rising cost of living was a source of worry to them and that the association would not sit aloof while its members suffer in abject hardship.
“It is trite knowledge that cost of living in Ghana today is rising with the speed of light which has and continue to affect the livelihood of our members who are sacrificing to build this nation”, he observed.
Mr Kadiri therefore said the regional leadership of the association is calling on the national leadership to, as a matter of urgency, declare a nationwide strike if the government failed to honour their demand by the end of this month.
Stating the grounds that necessitated the demand for the Cost of Living Allowance, Mr Kadiri explained that cost of living in the country has become unbearable with the incessant increase in fuel prices, and cost of food items.
He added that the situation had been compounded by the introduction of new taxes by the government, yet the teacher’s salary remained unchanged saying “The teacher today is virtually living on life support”.
“In January this year, a cake of Geisha soap was selling in the open market at GHC3.00, today it is GHC7.50; a tin of Ideal Milk which was sold at GHC3.50 is now sold at GHC7.00; cement was GHC48.00 in Wa, it is now 68.00; as for iron rods the least spoken of it the better”, the association said.
Mr Kadiri explained that the both the leadership of NAGRAT and other sister unions and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) had made cases for the CoLA of at least 20 per cent at different instances yet the government remained adamant to their request.
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