The Judicial Service Staff Association of Ghana (JUSAG) has served notice to government that its members across the country will lay down their tools at the end of the month if an upward review of their salaries is not effected.
A November 1st, 2019 statement to this effect gave the government 29 days within which to adjust the salaries of Judicial staff upwards or incur the industrial action.
Derrick Annan, Secretary of JUSAG, explains that the decision to strike on November 30 was made after appeals to the government were ignored.
“Since then (2017) our salaries have not been reviewed, and we have made proposals to the Judicial Council for the review, those were done and submitted to the government. Unfortunately, we have gotten the information that the government has rather postponed our salary review to 2020. The reason, it has come to our attention, is that because of budget constraints, which we think is totally unacceptable,” Mr. Annan said in an interview.
According to the JUSAG Secretary, salaries of the staff of the Judiciary are supposed to be reviewed every two years, however, the last time that their salaries were reviewed was in 2017.
Even so, the last review meant that their salaries and conditions of service are supposed to be reviewed in 2019. However, the government has postponed the review to 2020, a thing that they say is unacceptable. In 2017, JUSAG had threatened a strike over rent allowance, but the issue was resolved in 2018.