The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Public Sector Reforms, Kusi Boafo has disclosed that the demand for a 20% cost of living allowance by some labour organized groups especially teachers is equivalent to employing about fifty thousand (50,000) workers in the public sector.
Speaking to Kwaku Dawuro on Movement In The Morning show, Mr. Boafo said that ”if the request by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) is granted, the government may not be able to employ about 50,000 graduates for the next five years.
The government will have to borrow to do that because currently there’s no money available and we will have to borrow using treasury bills with high-interest rates.
Therefore, I’m urging the public sector workers to be moderate in their demands”.
According to him, when public sector workers demand salary increments, it’s indirectly requesting tax from the private sector and therefore bears the consequences making it impossible for the private sector employers to increase the salary of their employees.
He, however, indicated that the government is not happy about the current state of the sector but is unable to terminate the contracts of some unproductive workers because people will end up politicking and blaming the government for taking their jobs away from them.
In addition, around ten percent of employees working in the public sector should be let go!