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The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) on Monday said the government�s position to place moratorium on public sector workers� salary for 2014 very disgusting and appalling. It said that decision when viewed against the background of the current inflation rate of over 14 per cent and its associated increases in prices of goods and services day in and day out and the general economic malaise were too glaring to ignore. The Association mentioned prices of utilities which had been formatted and thereby leading to upward automatic adjustment almost bi-weekly, the removal of subsidies on fuel and other petroleum products and the increment of Value Added Tax from 15 per cent to 17.5 per cent as issues that were to the disadvantage of the ordinary government workers and their dependents. Mr Mawunyo V.V.K. Demanya, the Deputy General Secretary in Charge of Finance, addressing the media in Accra, said the GNAT believed that moratorium on salaries was "not the way to go at this crucial period in the lives of Ghanaian workers". He said there was no gainsaying that workers in that same economy, were getting to, if not already at, the unbearable stage vis-�-vis the current salaries they were receiving. �It is in view of this that we of the Ghana National Association of Teachers would like to associate ourselves with the warning from organized labour that we would do whatever it takes to resist government from placing any moratorium/freeze on workers �salaries for the year 2014,� Mr Demanya said. �The GNAT, the mouth-piece of the majority of pre-tertiary education employees in the country, finds this posture of government very disgusting and appalling,� he added. Government on April 3, 2014 announced at a Public Sector Joint Standing Negotiation Committee meeting that it had decided to put a freeze on Public Sector Salary increases for the 2014. Mr Damanya said by that, the message the government was conveying to the public that due to the harsh economic circumstances that the country found itself, there would be no increment on last year�s daily base pay of GHC 5.32 and therefore, no salary increment for government employees including teachers. �We want to reiterate the point that the GNAT will not agree to this pronouncement from the government. The harsh economic conditions we are going through are too biting to talk about freeze on salary increase,� he said. �We of the GNAT promise our rank and file that we will always fight for the best in their interest and we hope that when the time comes and we call upon them, they would be ready to give us all the necessary support.� Mr Awotwe Nkansah, Deputy General Secretary, Administration and Labour Relations, said public sector workers had been sacrificing all the while and �what we are receiving now is not the best of all.� He explained that last year, the parties went to the negotiating table with 20 per cent increment and finally when they came down to 15 per cent; government came out to give 10 per cent. �We have thrown away over 120 per cent over the years and we cannot allow that anymore,� he said. Mr Thomas Baafi, the Deputy General Secretary, Education and Professional Development, said GNAT did not believe that sacrificing would enable the government to manage the wage bill because there were other means that it could effectively reduce the wage bill. �Government should find ways of reducing the level of corruption in the system and also remove ghost names from the payrolls and not by freezing public sector workers� salaries,� he added.