Government and Organised Labour have concluded negotiations on the controversial Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) after weeks of disagreement between the two parties.
A 15 percent allowance has been agreed effective July 1, 2022 for all workers in the public sector as government is keen on mitigating the impact of global challenges on the people of Ghana.
DGN Online understands that the disagreement on the proposed percentage delayed the fruitful negotiation.
The union was said to be firm in getting it 20 percent demand but government insistence for reduction and continuous proposed of lower percentage led to earlier inconclusive negotiations.
However, with the current agreement, all planned industrial actions have been suspended immediately.
“The Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) will be paid at a rate of 15 percent of base pay that the effective date of the payment of COLA is 1st July 2022, ” Employment and Labour Relations Minister, Ignatius Baffuor Awuah announced at a press briefing on Thursday.
This was the third meeting between the government and labour unions since the demand for COLA started.
The delegation from the government side was the Minister for National Security, Albert Kan-Dapaah, Minister for Education, Dr Yaw Adutwum, Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffour Awuah and Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta together with his Deputy Abena Osei Asare.
A meeting between both parties on Tuesday was adjourned due to the refusal of some labour unions to call off their strike before negotiations commenced.
“We have had to adjourn the meeting because both parties; labour and government think that we cannot do this while a party is on strike, so the agreement is that we are going off to talk to each other. They call off the strike and we come again to meet,” Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Bright Wereko-Brobbey had said.
BY Vincent Kubi