Teacher Unions Call Off Strike Over Cost Of Living Allowance: Government Agrees to 15% COLA

• Striking public school teachers have agreed to return to the classroom after the government agreed to pay them and other labour unions 15% of their basic salary as a Cost of Living Allowance (COLA)
• The public sector workers had been agitating for more than two weeks for a 20% COLA but they got 15%
• Four teacher unions at the pre-tertiary level had been on strike since July 4 to push the government to agree to the COLA

The four teacher unions who left the classrooms of pre-tertiary public schools, demanding Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) have agreed to return to class.

They called off their two-week strike on Thursday, July 14, 2022, after reaching an agreement with the government.

According to a 3News report, the four influential teacher unions called off their strike action after the government agreed to a 15% COLA with organised labour. The unions had demanded a 20% COLA.

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The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU), and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers Ghana (CCT), declared a nationwide strike on July 4, 2022, over the COLA.

COLA is calculated as a percentage of their basic salary paid as an allowance to them every month to cushion them from economic hardship. With an agreement reached, the government will now pay organised labour 15% of their basic salary every month as COLA.

Agitations on the labour front as hardship bites

Many labour unions had stated their intention to also lay down their tools over the COLA. Public workers cited the economic hardship caused by high inflation and high interest rates as the reason for the COLA.

The agitations got to a head when Ghanaian doctors joined the fray on the labour front about the allowance.

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The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) said its members share the same sentiments expressed by teacher unions and the Trades Union Congress about the COLA.

General Secretary of GMA, Titus Beyuo, said just like the striking teachers, doctors too were being battered by the economic hardship in Ghana.

Three out of four Ghanaians don’t believe E-Levy will fund development programmes - Survey

YEN.com.gh has reported in a separate story that a new Afrobarometer survey shows three out of four Ghanaians disapprove of the recently passed electronic transaction levy (E-Levy).

Also, 76% of Ghanaians surveyed think the new tax regime is bad because it will increase the tax burden on the poor and ordinary citizens. This includes 63% who “strongly agree” with this view.

Aspects of the Round 9 (2021/2022) findings of the Afrobarometer survey on Ghana were released on Wednesday, July 13, 2022, by the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD).

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Source: YEN.com.gh