Saturday, August 15, 2015

UTAG Suspends Strike after Government Agrees to Pay Last Year's Allowance at a Fake Exchange Rate

Blogging has been slow due to family visitation. I have been back in Ghana since 7 July 2015. The UTAG strike has now been suspended so starting next week I need to return to work. If the book and research allowance is not paid by 30 September 2015 then the union will resume the strike. Although the government agreed to pay last year's allowance they are doing so at an artificial exchange rate of 3.5 cedis to the dollar when the cedi is really worth only 24 cents. That means instead of the $1,500 they owe us from last year (we don't get any interest on this loan to the government either) we will only get $1,300. There is no mention what so ever of this year's allowance which was due 31 July 2015. That will take at least another year to get again with no interest.

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