The University Students Association of Ghana (USAG) on Thursday urged labour unions to desist from making unrealistic and inequitable demands.
“USAG will want to inform and caution all labour unions within the country that there is no faultless, flawless and perfect system in the real world, they should stop the unprofessional conduct of exploiting the unfortunate partisan political status which now characterizes public sector remuneration”, the Association said in a statement signed by its President, Mr Laud Addo.
It called on politicians, political parties, national leaders, social commentators and all others to desist from making political capital out of the whole issue.
“It is about time an objective, dispassionate, holistic, nationalistic and critical examination of the whole Single Spine Salary Structure policy is undertaken, and definite answers found to the challenges that have characterized its implementation.
“We use this opportunity to make a strong case for GNAT and NAGRAT to go back to the classroom whiles they together with other stakeholders work jointly to address their concerns”, the statement added.
USAG noted that the politicization of the SSSS was the main cause of labour unrest. “Right from the onset, comments, pronouncements and the posture of our politicians and political parties meant that SSSS would be more than a ‘good policy’ intended to cleanse the inconsistencies and discrepancies that characterized public sector compensation as at then”.
According to USAG, whiles the policy was well intentioned, the provincial, self-seeking, polarized, partisan and propagandist positions of some politicians and political parties, led to a plethora of comments about the SSSS.
“Had our politicians, political parties and their rented press and PROs taken an objective and nationalistic stance on this policy, perhaps we would have made better progress with the implementation of the SSSS than we see currently”, the statement said.
