A Labour Consultant, Austin Gamey is warning of increased inflationary pressures if the calls for a neutrality allowance by the Civil and Local Government Staff Association of Ghana (CLOGSAG) are heeded by the government. Currently, the national inflation rate is close to 20%.

CLOGSAG laid down their tools on Thursday, April 21, 2022, following the inability of the government to pay the allowance as agreed upon in January this year.

The strike by members of the Civil and Local Government Staff Association, Ghana (CLOGSAG), in demand for the payment of their neutrality allowances has continued into this week.

The neutrality allowance is to ensure that civil and local government workers do not engage in partisanship while conducting their affairs when they are in their various offices. The strike and demand for the allowance have generated public debate with a divided opinion on the relevance of such an allowance.

Rather than pay the said allowance, a Labour Consultant, Austin Gamey has urged the government to adjust upward, the salaries of civil servants rather than agree to pay a neutrality allowance. In an interview with Citi News, Austin Gamey said the payment of this allowance could lead to increased inflationary pressures on the economy

“There is a way out. They can always negotiate, such that instead of an allowance, if they have to make some adjustment in their wage level, the base pay level, not at the tripartite meeting but their own meetings. Adjust their pay a bit, instead of the neutrality allowance which will be latched onto by others. Or find something else to do, because the current language is very problematic and should not be introduced in the first place.”

“So clearly what we are doing to ourselves now will only trigger further inflationary pressures in this country and all of us will live to suffer the consequences for it,” he added