4% salary increment: We were surprised Speaker turned down our petition - Aggrieved public workers

• Government has proposed a 4% and 7% increment in salaries for public sector workers for 2021 and 2022 respectively

• Some aggrieved workers hit the streets to register their disgust at the proposal

• They also expressed regret at the decision by the Speaker not to receive their petition

The leader of the Aggrieved Public Sector Workers,

Read full articleNorbert Gborgbortsi, has expressed deep surprise at the decision by the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, to turn down their petition to him.

According to Mr. Gborgbortsi, after they wrote to the Speaker’s office to express their interest in presenting their petition to him, he wrote back to them to explain that parliament has Standing Orders that must be followed in matters like that.

He explained further that this response was a shock to him because it would not be the first time the Speaker’s office would be receiving a petition.

“This is just to show that we are not happy and we ain’t going to sleep. On this note, I’d like to read the petition that is supposed to have been presented to the Speaker of Parliament. The Speaker wrote to us to tell us that there are Standing Orders in parliament that we do not know and those don’t allow him to receive our petition.

“Meanwhile, in this country, we’ve seen him receive petitions. I am surprised,” he explained.

Gborgbortsi also explained how the Speaker redirected them, advising them on how they could go about getting their petition presented.

“He directed us to look for some of them and lay our petition before them. It will surprise you to know that after contacting a number of them numbering over 10, only one has agreed,” he said.

Gborgbortsi made this known when he addressed the media at Independence Square in Accra after their demonstration.

The group then moved to the Parliament House in Accra to meet the Member of Parliament for Asuogyaman, Thomas Nyarko Ampem, but one of the leaders told GhanaWeb over the phone that they were rather met by one of the workers of the MP.

He however added that the MP left word for them to meet him on Friday.

A little over a hundred members of the Aggrieved Public Sector Workers hit the streets Wednesday, August 18, 2021, to register their disgust at the proposed 4% increment of salaries for public workers, stating that it is nothing to write home about.

The group wants a 25% increment for this year and a 35% increment for next year, as opposed to the 4% and 7% for this year and next year respectively.