President of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Isaac Owusu, says the Association will stand by its June 30 ultimatum for government to pay the Cost of Living Allowances (COLA) to workers.

According to him, the leaders of GNAT will not fail their members by extending the deadline given to government.

He said this while speaking at the GNAT Investment Forum held at the GNAT Hall on Wednesday June 29.

“We are still standing by our demand and the deadline that we have given. We cannot fail our members,” he said.

The General Secretary of GNAT, Thomas Musah, on his part said the general income situation of all workers in the country should be looked at.

He indicated that most workers earn low basic salary which eventually affect the quantum of the pension benefits they are given when in retirement.

Mr Musah said “It has become very necessary that the issues of income in this country should be looked at. We cannot run away from the issue of basic salary.

“That is why we are organizing this forum to look at what can be done to ensure that when workers are retiring they are better of.

“There is one thing that we have been asking over the years, at least, if for nothing at all, when the worker is retiring he should be able to afford a two bedroom house.”

Speaking at the same event, the Director-General of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Dr John Ofori-Tenkorang said the scheme is the best pension scheme workers can get anywhere.

He explained that the management of SSNIT has been carrying out indexation to meet the rising rate of inflation. 

This, he said, is part of the reasons the scheme is best for workers.

"SSNIT undertakes indexation every year and the indexation matches inflation. SSNIT is aware of that and so we compensate for inflation,“ he said.

"I will urge people not to throw the baby out with the bad water. The narrative is that SSNIT is not good, people connived with their employers not to pay their SSNIT but the SSNIT scheme is the best that you can ever get anywhere else as far as pensions is concerned. If you don't join to contribute you are harming yourself," he added.

He further indicated that management is going to rollout a programme to educate the people on the need to join SSNIT.

"We are going to rollout programmes to get people to come and join SSNIT because it is the best thing they can do for themselves," he said.