Civilian employees of Ghana Police Service cry for better salaries
Civilian employees of the Ghana Police Service have appealed to the government and the police administration to, as a matter of urgency, review their salary packages.
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They also expressed regret at the lack of conditions of service.
Some aggrieved workers who spoke to the Daily Graphic on condition of anonymity said their salaries had not been reviewed close to a decade.
The workers, who said they worked at the police headquarters, the Police Hospital, the workshop division of the service across the country, claimed there were about 3000 of them who did not have conditions of service.
They said workers received between GH¢300 and GH¢430 depending on the number of years served and level of education.
Currently, the entry salary, according to the workers, had been fixed at GH¢361 while those who had worked in the service for 20 to 30 years took home amounts ranging between GH¢400 and GH¢430 as monthly salary.
Three of the employees who showed their payslips to the Daily Graphic said they received GH¢361 per month, a situation they described as an unfair treatment and clear discrimination between them and their counterparts in other security agencies who received higher salaries.
Police Service regulations
The workers said with the exception of a monthly tools allowance of GH¢2.70, they did not enjoy any other allowances.
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“In spite of the fact that we are treated as public servants per the Police Service Regulations, 2012; Constitutional Instrument (C.I.) 76, we have no conditions of service,” said one of the workers.
“We do not understand why the Police Service Regulations, 2012; C.I. 76 clearly spell out how we should be treated in terms of salaries and conditions of service but that has been ignored all this while,” he added.
Article 155 (1 to 5) of the Police Service Regulations, 2012; C.I. 76 stipulates how civilian employees of the Ghana Police Service are to be treated as other public servants under article 190 of the 1992 Constitution.
For instance, Article 155 (2) states that “Civilians employed in the service shall be guided by the Public Service Regulations and be under the conditions of service that pertain in the public service.”
Clause 5 of the same article also emphasises that “the conditions of service of civilian employees of the service shall be as exists in other public services”.
“We do not enjoy any form of retirement package among other service benefits,” another worker noted.
Efforts made so far
The workers expressed worry about why the Ministry of the Interior and the Inspector General of Police (IGP), had not addressed their concerns “for the past three to four years”.
They explained that the leadership of the Civilian Employee Welfare Union had met their employers on countless occasions but nothing fruitful had come out from such meetings.
The union leaders, according to the workers, have now relaxed due to the many disappointments, “leaving our fate in our own hands at the moment,” another said very frustrated.
They also complained that every month, they went through a tumb-printing exercise for their background checks, for which they were charged GH¢10 but had been increased to GH¢30 recently.
Police response
Attempts made to speak to the police did not yield any positive response.
The Director of the Police Public Affairs Directorate, Superintendent of Police, Mr Cephas Arthur, who agreed to link the Daily Graphic to the appropriate quarters, was unable to honour his promise.
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