NAGRAT Warns Government

The National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) has warned government to immediately deal with the issues of categories two and three allowances and market premium for teachers in the new pay policy or face its wrath. According to NAGRAT, the loud silence of both Fair Wages and Salary Commission (FWSC) and government, in spite of letters and reminders, indicated that there was foul play. The group therefore gave government two weeks to respond to the issues of categories two and three allowances and market premium for teachers or else it would step up effort beyond the ordinary since all legitimate means in pursuit of its concern had yielded no result. Speaking at a press conference in Accra, the general secretary of NAGRAT, Stanislaus P. Nabome, said the persistent refusal of government to return to the table for the completion of the said negotiation was not only discriminatory but also malicious. �It is a deliberately orchestrated agenda to short change the teachers of the nation,� he added. According to him, �It is surprising that after migrating workers onto the Salary Structure, the Fair Wages and Salary Structure Commission (FWSC) has lost the clout to negotiate Category 2&3 allowances.� �It is pertinent to note that since February 8, 2012 when a meeting was summoned by FWSC and adjourned within minutes, all efforts to get the government side back to the negotiation table have proved futile,� Mr. Nabome added. He said NAGRAT had written four letters urging the government to call a stakeholders� meeting to discuss the allowances but all to no avail. �It worrying to note that some categories of workers were receiving category 2 &3 allowances prior to the implementation of the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP) and that they migrated onto the Spine with same.� Mr. Nabome said teachers unfortunately migrated onto the policy with no allowances whatsoever. He said two years after the implementation of the SSPP, the FWSC had failed to decompress the structure so as to remove overlaps. Mr. Nabome said the implementation of the SSPP had been a total failure, adding that a policy that was intended to bring about equity in the salaries of public sector workers turned out to aggravate the inequalities through the introduction of market premium for some categories of workers who could flex their muscles. He said so far, the market premium had been given to people without any scientific bases to determine who qualified. He added that NAGRAT was not in any way against the fact that some workers had been given market premium; however it was against the selective and unscientific nature in which teachers had been denied it. Mr. Nabome said the entire pay structure was a mess and its implementers should come again, adding, �This buttresses the fact that FWSC has lost control of the Pay Policy.� NAGRAT also demanded that the ongoing advertisement which sort to create the impression that teachers were satisfied with the benefits they were deriving from the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) be withdrawn with immediate effect. The group said, �We are very surprised that any teacher will turn him/her self into chief propaganda instrument for government and advertise his/her paltry salary or allowances, some of which do not even exist.� Such teachers, the group, said should bow their heads in shame.