You protected your job not our jobs – Workers To Akufo Addo

Nana Addo: I protected your jobs, Public sector workers: You protected your job… This is the ongoing debate on social media after the president’s latest comments on 15% COLA at the 2022 NPP National Elections in Accra.

“He protected his own job as president, not our work. After which he increased his salary by 79% and increased ours by 4%”

“From there he increased fuel prices by 50%, increase input duty by 65%, and now they’re saying what: 🤷‍♀️”

The above comment is one of the many reactions from public sector workers…

Following the successful completion of COLA negotiations leading to a 15% COLA for pu”I protected your jobs”, “No, you protected your job” -Worker Clash With Akufo Addoblic sector workers, President Akufo Addo reminded public sector workers of the efforts of his government during the Covid-19, which included what he termed the protection of jobs and payment of salaries for public sector workers as well as the provision of freebies like water and electricity.

According to a cross-section of workers, the government took those decisions because the Covid-19 coincided with the 2020 general elections, hence the president did all that to protect his job and win his second term election.

Some workers further argued strongly that, the COLA was needed because of the high inflation. Ghana’s inflation has gone up again, rising to 29.8 percent in June 2022. The constant upward increase in the prices of goods and services pushed workers led by teacher unions to declare an industrial action and demand a 20% non-taxable Cost of Living Allowance, which led to the approval of a 15% COLA to be paid for the next six months from July to December 2022.

Portions of his speech during the 2022 NPP National Elections in Accra have not settled down well with workers.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said:

“I want to say big thanks to organized labour” for reaching an agreement with the government during their strike over their Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) allowance “because it then demonstrates also the concerns our party has, always had and will continue to have for the concerns of the workers and the people of Ghana”.

Speaking at the New Patriotic Party (NPP) national delegates conference underway at the Accra Sports Stadium, Mr. Akufo-Addo said: “During the [COVID-19] pandemic, at the height of the pandemic, people had to stay at home; no single worker in the public sector was dismissed, no salary cuts were visited on the workers in the public sector.”

“On the contrary”, he noted, “not only were they paid in full”, but “they also had their jobs protected”.

“We went further to make it possible to organize free water, free electricity, for the ordinary people of our country”, he pointed out.

“That is the measure of the concern of the New Patriotic Party for working people in our country,” he added

READ: Nana Addo: I protected your jobs, paid Covid Salaries: 15% COLA – Are Public Sector Workers Ungrateful?

More reactions from teachers and workers…

The covid didn’t make us a different person….we were still teachers during the covid and need to be paid….. You were receiving pay too….we are all workers for GHANA.

 

“Did you pay with your money, Mr. President? Is it not our deducted taxes that have been used to pay all of us, including you? …and for your information, teachers were working during the covid and after the covid, more contact hours were added on”

 

This man is certainly c****d. COLA is not demanded because workers were not paid fully during COVID-19. COLA is demanded because of inflation, which in itself is a pandemic!

 

Source: Ghana Education News