Deputy Employment Minister justifies CLOGSAG’s demand for neutrality allowance

 The Deputy Employment and Labour Relations Minister has explained the rationale behind the Civil and Local Government Staff Association of Ghana (CLOGSAG’s) demand for government to pay them a neutrality allowance.

According to Bright Wireko-Brobby, the allowance payment will reinforce the group’s commitment to be neutral.

He said this has necessitated the group’s request for the allowance, which government has agreed to.

However, the Deputy Minister said the name for the allowance has not been firmed up completely.

“For them, they make a case that they cannot attend any political programme, therefore, do not get anything from the political landscape, and then they are committed to staying neutral and will not get any form of allowance or whatever.

“They are deprived of those things and, therefore, government must help them to stay neutral. So that allowance is what they have put forward, and we have agreed that we have to look at this, but it is not firmly agreed on the name to give to it, but this is the rationale.”

“They think that we must look at this and see if we can do something about it for them so that their neutrality is reinforced or committed. So this is where we came to and agreed that no problem.

“We will look at the form and pay. It’s only about the payment and not the name. We think that these are our chief advisors, so we don’t even want to discuss our matter because they advise the government publicly.”

The Deputy Minister also disclosed that the “allowance is going to be 20% of their base salary”.

He made this known on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Thursday, April 21.

His comment comes after the Civil and Local Government Staff Association, Ghana (CLOGSAG) announced its intention to embark on a strike from today, April 21, over the government’s failure to pay its members their neutrality allowance.

The Association, in a statement, said the allowance formed part of a Memorandum of Understanding entered into with the government on January 20, 2022.

Despite official reminders and follow-ups to the Finance Ministry, payment of the allowance has not been effected after more than three months as agreed, CLOGSAG stated.

But the president of IMANI-Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, has described the allowance as fraudulent, saying it is entirely wrong for the government to pay it.

As a result, he has called for the immediate abolishment of same.

In an interview with JoyNews, he noted that “The whole idea behind civil service work or public service work is rooted in the principle of neutrality, anonymity and permanency. It is wrong; it definitely should be scrapped.”