The Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Dr. Yaw Baah has expressed appreciation to government on behalf of public sector workers following the increment of base pay for 2023.

On Thursday, January 12, the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations announced the increment in a meeting with labour unions.

“Since August last year, we started meeting to determine the base pay for 2023.

“This was after in July, we had worked together to grant a COLA of 15 per cent, being a relief for hardships that the Ghanaian worker was enduring. It was our hope to have completed this negotiation by December 2022.

“Unfortunately, we were not able to finish but thankfully, today, we have worked together to come to a conclusion.

“I am happy to announce the outcome of our engagements. The base pay has been increased by 30% for the 2023 financial year.

“The effective date is 1st January 2023. As I said this brings to an end the 2022 COLA of 15% of base pay salary,” Mr. Baffuor-Awuah said.

At the meeting, Dr. Yaw Baah speaking on behalf of the labour unions stressed that although they wanted a higher increase, they are content with the 30% and thanked the government for its effort.

“Even though the 30 per cent is not what ideally we wanted, it will create that opportunity for us to speak one language and work together to make sure our country recovers to where we were before the Covid.

“On behalf of my people, I will like to say a big thank you to government for this offer, we are very grateful,” the TUC Secretary-General noted.