We are tired of being sacrificial lambs - Civil servants

Accra (Greater Accra), 6th October 99 - Representatives from various Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Civil Servants Association (CAS) in the Greater Accra Region on Tuesday called for the withdrawal of the Ghana Universal Salary Structure (GUSS) until it has been structured well enough to cater for them.

They said ''gone were the days that civil servants were used as the sacrificial lambs. We are now fully awake''.

They announced this at an emergency meeting held in Accra to decide on the next line of action to take should they fail to reach a compromise with their employer on the anomalies detected in the implementation of the Price Waterhouse recommendations.

According to them, the ''spirit of the Memorandum of Understanding signed by all stakeholders, which states that no worker would be made worse off under the new wages and salary policy was grossly violated as some of them have been made worse off than before''.

Mr. James Amissah, Acting Regional Chairman, said the meeting is to sensitise members on the need to draw government's attention to their plight.

He said they resolved at a similar meeting held last week to wear red bands to send signals to the government to address pertinent issues affecting the civil servants.

"It is a painful decision but we are all old enough to know what is good and what is bad. This is the time to rise up and defend ourselves. There is no need for Civil Servants to wear red bands or go on strike before their plight is addressed."

He said civil servants had in the past, wholeheartedly embraced the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) Pension Scheme but were later disappointed "when a civil servant has to go home with eight thousand cedis as his pension.

"We would not allow ourselves to be used as a sacrificial lamb for others to take advantage of us".

Mr. Amissah said it was not his intention to incite them to strike but to lay bare what is pertaining on the ground.

The Regional Branch of the Association at their last meeting on September 28 gave the government a two-week ultimatum to address the anomalies detected in the implementation of the recommendations.

They also agreed to start wearing red bands from October one until their grievances were addressed.

The Vice President, Professor John Evans Atta Mills, is expected to meet the executives today, Wednesday, October six, to discuss the issue.