{"id":331376,"date":"2025-12-08T01:02:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T01:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/331376\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T01:02:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T01:02:11","slug":"increase-in-utility-tariffs-unfair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/331376\/","title":{"rendered":"Increase in utility tariffs unfair"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanaweb.com\/GhanaHomePage\/business\/Increase-in-utility-tariffs-unfair-Ghana-Federation-of-Labour-2012566?gallery=1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/41712726.295.jpg\" alt=\"Abraham Koomson is the Executive Secretary of the Ghana Federation of Labour\" title=\"Abraham Koomson is the Executive Secretary of the Ghana Federation of Labour\" width=\"295\" height=\"204\" \/> <\/a>Abraham Koomson is the Executive Secretary of the Ghana Federation of Labour<\/p>\n<p id=\"article-123\">The Ghana Federation of Labour (GFL) has described the recent utility tariff hikes as unfair, warning that they erode the modest wage gains secured for workers in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on Ahotor FM\u2019s Yepe Ahunu show on Saturday, December 6, 2026, the Secretary General of the Federation, Abraham Koomson, argued that the utility tariff increment effectively cancels out the 9% base pay adjustment agreed for public sector workers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGovernment is taking back with utility hikes what was given in wages,\u201d Koomson stated.<\/p>\n<p>He revealed that the 9% base pay adjustment was reluctantly accepted by the organised labour, given the country\u2019s economic challenges.<\/p>\n<p>He stressed that persistent inflation, coupled with rising utility costs, continues to squeeze households and undermine workers\u2019 welfare.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanaweb.com\/GhanaHomePage\/business\/PURC-utility-hikes-undermine-9-salary-increase-TUC-decries-2012435\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">PURC utility hikes undermine 9% salary increase \u2013 TUC decries<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Koomson further lamented that organised labour\u2019s representative on the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) board, Dr Kwabena Otoo, a seasoned economist and Deputy Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), was sidelined in the decision-making process on the tariff adjustments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe has played key roles in minimum wage and base pay negotiations, yet he was excluded in determining these tariff adjustments,\u201d he asserted.<\/p>\n<p>The PURC announced new tariffs for 2026, citing rising operational costs and the need to maintain reliable service delivery. <\/p>\n<p>The adjustments include a 9.86% increase in electricity tariffs and a 15.92% rise in water charges across all consumer categories.<\/p>\n<p>The new rates will take effect on January 1, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>This follows a series of tariff reviews in recent years, often justified by the PURC as necessary to offset inflation, currency depreciation, and the high cost of fuel and water treatment.<\/p>\n<p>However, these increments have consistently drawn criticism from labour unions and consumer groups, who argue that they worsen the cost of living crisis.<\/p>\n<p>SA<\/p>\n<p>All you need to know about Ghana&#8217;s new vehicle number plates |BizTech:<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Abraham Koomson is the Executive Secretary of the Ghana Federation of Labour The Ghana Federation of Labour (GFL)&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-331376","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}