Legal practitioner, Austin Kwabena Brako-Powers, has bemoaned the manner in which successive governments have handled issues relating to labour in the country.
Over the years, government, Brako-Powers says, has not treated labour matters properly, which has resulted in the numerous strikes the country has been witnessing.
According to him, the previous government’s failure to implement the 2019 agreement with the labour union makes it partly complicit in the ongoing unrest.
Speaking on TV3’s NewDay morning show on Monday, March 9, 2026, the lawyer criticised successive administrations for their poor handling of labour issues.
“We haven’t treated labour issues seriously and it didn’t start this term. I mean that it didn’t start in this regime,” he said on the BigIssue segment of the show.
CLOGSAG commenced its industrial action on Monday, March 9, 2026, following what it describes as the government’s failure to implement their agreed conditions of service with the previous government in 2019.
This is biting hard as many departments, ministries and agencies have been affected, including local government offices throughout the country, where members of the Association constitute a substantial portion of the administrative workforce.
According to leadership of CLOGSAG, the government’s repeated failure to heed to the agreement is the reason for the industrial action.
Although the National Labour Commission (NLC) has directed the Association to suspend the planned strike and resume negotiations, it says it will not comply until government gives them what they require.
It has instructed its members nationwide to disregard the NLC’s directive and lay down their tools, insisting that the government has not adequately responded to their concerns.
Public Relations Officer of the Association, Edmund Aquaye, prior to the commencement of the strike today, had indicated that leadership had not received any formal communication from the government since the strike notice was issued last week.
“Since last Thursday, when we gave the announcement for the strike, the National Executive Council of CLOGSAG has still not heard anything from our employer, and for that matter, our strike is still on. We are entreating all CLOGSAG members, wherever they are, not to go to work on March 9,” he stated.
He said he expected the previous government to work on the agreement since they made that negotiation with the workers and also had the opportunity to implement same, saying they are partly to be blamed for the mishap..
“CLOGSAG is saying they signed two Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for salary hike and I’m troubled that six years down the line, very little progress has been made,” he stated.
“During the Nana Akufo-Addo administration, they promised to implement the agreement on January 1st 2025 and what happened? So the current disruption, the previous administration is partly to be blamed.
“The agreement was signed in 2019 and they postponed the implementation to 2025 and they gave assurance to the labour union that they were going to implement on January 1st 2025, were they not in power then? When they were preparing the three months budget to cater for the transition period, why didn’t they factor it?” he quizzed.
Brako-Powers held that the past government’s failure to act on the matter raises legitimate concerns which should be addressed.
“These are legitimate concerns we should be asking them. Because you signed the MoU with CLOGSAG. You agreed voluntarily, they didn’t force you. So you had a fine opportunity to implement the agreement and you didn’t do that. So I’m saying that the previous administration is partly to be blamed for the disruptions we are witnessing,” he stated.
Meanwhile, government is still in talks with leadership of the Association for the way forward after the first meeting ended inconclusively.
National Labour Commission declares CLOGSAG strike illegal, summons parties to a meeting on March 11
