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The Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, Mr. Haruna Iddrisu has called on members of the Civil And Local Government Staff Association (CLOSAG) to resume work immediately or forfeit their August salary and other compensations.

He indicated that although government respects the Association’s decision to embark on a strike action, it was also unprepared to reward and compensate for unproductive hours.

“It is legal and acceptable to embark on a strike action to present your grievances but we must all understand the state needs us. We can do this for two or three days and return to the negotiation table since it’s the only way to resolve an impasse,” he added.

The Minister was speaking at a media briefing in Accra on government’s position regarding the latest industrial strike.

Mr. Iddrisu appealed to the workers to return to work since “the strike action is undermining efficient delivery of public goods and services.”

To determine members deserving of salaries and other allowances during the strike period, the Minister directed the head of Civil Service to conduct roll calls from today to Friday.

He reiterated government’s commitment to pay market premium to qualified public servants and urged CLOSAG to appear before the Sub-Committee of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) to present their grievances and justify their call for payment of market premium.

On the payment of interim market premium, Mr. Iddrisu said government was not in any position to pay while the Sub Committee of the FWSC’s work on the matter remains inconclusive adding that another obstacle to the payment of interim market premium was the failure of it to be captured in the current budget.

Mr. iddrisu again disclosed that government was working on a new market premium policy, which would be launched in January 2017, to be implemented in the year’s budget.

In the determination of national daily minimum wage for public sector workers, the Minister said government was in advanced negotiations with organized labour to ensure all relevant stakeholders were engaged.