Students are stranded as teachers observe the COLA strike.
Some basic and secondary school teachers in the Ashanti Region have abandoned their classrooms to comply with their union leaders' strike directive over the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA).
Due to the strike, students at Amankwatia Primary and Junior High School, Kumasi Senior High Technical School (KSTS), and Ahmadiyya SHS were seen playing instead of studying, according to Class News' Elisha Adarkwah.
Some of the students who spoke with Mr. Adarkwah expressed concern that the strike was interfering with their studies.
In an interview, Mr. Joseph Atindaana Baba, the Ashanti Regional Secretary for NAGRAT, urged members to stay at home as they advocate for the Cost of Living Allowance.
He urged his colleagues to continue the strike until the government is willing to engage with them and grant their request.
read also: Nurses and midwives are also entitled to COLA.
Members of Ghana's Union of Professional Nurses and Midwives (UPNMG) have said they, too, deserve a 20% Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) in light of the country's dire economic conditions, just as teacher unions do.
Teachers' unions have gone on strike as a result of the government's refusal to pay them the COLA they have been requesting since the beginning of the year.
UPNMG stated that they support the teachers' strike action and thus urged the government to pay the COLA to all public sector workers as soon as possible in order to avoid further industrial action.
The nurses and midwives said in a statement that the COLA was necessary due to the country's high cost of living.
Read on for more information on the statement:
NURSES AND MIDWIVES DESERVE COST OF LIVING ALLOWANCES AS WELL (COLA)
The leadership of the Ghana Union of Professional Nurses and Midwives (UPNMG) is surprised by the carelessness with which Nurses and Midwives' welfare has been handled during these difficult economic times. Workers were given a cost-of-living allowance (COLA) of 10% of their basic salary in 2014 to help us when things got tough due to the high cost of living.
We found ourselves in a similar economic situation in 2022, and we expected nothing less than a similar stopgap measure to protect the country's many nurses and midwives. Yesterday, education unions laid down their tools to hammer home this request, which was brought to the Employer's attention during the May Day celebration and followed up with a formal letter by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) on June 24th, 2022.
We, the members of the UNION OF PROFESSIONAL NURSES AND MIDWIVES, GHANA (UPNMG), are also urging the government to implement a COLA of at least 20% of our basic salaries while we wait for the economy's managers to turn things around.
The strike called by teachers in their joint press release is a step in the right direction and deserves the full support of the country's labor unions.
We've been waiting for the holder of the Collective Bargaining Certificate for Nurses and Midwives to make a move in demanding this COLA, but we've heard nothing from them. As the second largest union in the Nursing and Midwifery profession, we have taken it upon ourselves to urge the government to take a critical look at the situation as soon as possible.
The sooner we begin to reconsider the working conditions of nurses and midwives in Ghana, the better it will be for our health system, as nurses and midwives play an important role in the health delivery system.
As a result, the leadership is urging the employer to pay the COLA to all Public Sector Workers as soon as possible in order to avoid further industrial action.
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