Member of the communications team of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Saaka Salia, has countered the demand by the demonstrating public sector workers for their salaries to be increased from the 4% to 25% and 35%, saying if productivity was the measure for salary increment public sector workers will not have any salary increase at all.
He said if government were to use productivity as the scale for commensurating salary increase, he is sure that none of the public sector workers demonstrating will ever have any raise in their salaries.
Mr Salia further pointed out that with productivity as the yardstick for measuring salary increase he is sure many of them will rather have their salaries slashed for their lack of productivity at their workplaces.
In his attempt to justify why he made such claims against the demonstrating workers, Mr Salia said because of the far reaching effects of COVID-19, none of the workers have been productive enough to merit any salary increase in the country.
When asked by the host why in the same COVID-19 period Article 71 office holders have had their salaries raised by 79% to the surprise of Ghanaians, he said “there has never been a 79% increase technically” for the Article 71 office holders in the country.
He made this pronouncement in an interview with Berla Mundi on the New Day show on TV3, Thursday, August 19.
Mr Salia was reacting on the heels of the demonstration by public sector workers who were demonstrating for a 25% to 35% raise in their salaries rather than the 4% increase offered by government to the public sector workers in the country, to which they have remonstrated against compared to that of Article 71 office holders.
He said “if productivity were the measure of salary increase, if productivity were to commensurate with salary increase, I don’t think they would have had any salary increase. They would have had even a reduction in their salaries. I am saying that because of Covid, we have not been as productive as we should have”.
On his part, Elikem Kotoko of the communications team of the National Democratic Congress(NDC) lamented that he was scandalized by the insensitive comments by Mr Salia.
“I am very scandalized and at sea over the comments by my brother in relation to this matter. I mean, you see what I was telling you earlier that the lifestyle of government alone is even enough reason for the agitation we are seeing today. The President will tell you and I that we don’t have money but he is flying a luxurious flight and they are now saying ‘what is luxury?’, when the company itself describes it as “luxury”, he said.
