The National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) have backed calls for government to raise the salaries of public sector workers by at least 19 per cent.

The two major unions say the increment must be pegged at the current rate of inflation.

According to them, prices of all goods and services have skyrocketed, thus, the need for salary review.

The President of NAGRAT, Angel Carbonu in an interview said individual public sector workers are struggling to survive.

“Everywhere in the world, you match up salary increases by the level of inflation in the country.

“You and I know that when we take last year and this year, prices of almost every goods including services have doubled. How then do you expect the individual workers to survive?” he said on Joy FM’s Top Story.

Meanwhile, Vice President of the Ghana Medical Association, Justice Yankson argued that prices of goods and services are even going up beyond the official rate of inflation.

Thus, it is only fair that the increment in salaries is pegged at the rate of inflation.

“We all know that what we take can never take us home or to the market. Workers are really, really suffering under the current conditions we find ourselves in.

“Scientifically, you will use inflation but at the market, some goods have gone up by 50 to 60%,” he stressed.

Several worker unions have called on the government to increase the salary of their members by up to 20%.

Organised Labour and the Trades Union Congress have in the past week hinted at embarking on strike should government refuse to heed their demands.