Management of the National Lottery Authority (NLA) and the Financial Business and Services Employees Union (FBSEU) have reached an agreement that will end a dispute over workers’ salaries and allowances for 2026.
Under the Memorandum of Understanding, NLA employees covered by the agreement will receive a 12% increase in their basic salaries, backdated to 1 January 2026. The parties have also agreed to raise the utility allowance from 8% to 10%.
Workers will therefore be entitled to arrears covering both the salary increase and the additional two percentage points in the utility allowance. Those payments will run from January 2026 until the revised rates are introduced on the payroll.
The agreement follows weeks of disagreement between the Authority and the union, culminating in industrial action by NLA workers earlier this month.
FBSEU had initially sought a 17% increase in basic salaries. Management, however, argued that the NLA’s financial position could support only a 12% rise.
The negotiations were also affected by concerns over a fall in employees’ take-home pay after changes connected to the application of statutory income taxes. The NLA said those adjustments followed concerns about how income tax was being applied to salaries and allowances.
Management also maintained that it had already absorbed historical tax liabilities amounting to millions of cedis. Workers, meanwhile, argued that the reduction in their net salaries meant a larger salary adjustment was necessary.
Dispute referred for arbitration
After the negotiations reached an impasse, the matter was referred to the National Labour Commission for arbitration.
Further intervention by the Minister for Labour, Jobs and Employment and the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission helped create the conditions for renewed discussions between the NLA and FBSEU.
The final agreement confirms that the 12% increase applies to the 2026 calendar year for all workers covered by the arrangement. It also states that the revised utility allowance will take effect from 1 January 2026.
In a further measure aimed at addressing the difference between workers’ gross and net pay, the parties agreed that an additional 1% will be considered during the 2027 salary negotiations, alongside any percentage increase in basic salaries.
The NLA and the union have committed themselves to ensuring that all outstanding arrears are calculated and paid promptly. They have also pledged to honour the terms of the agreement and to deal with any future disagreements over its implementation through consultation and the appropriate statutory dispute-resolution procedures.
The settlement ends a dispute that had created concerns about staff welfare and working conditions at the Authority, while also raising the possibility that its operations could be affected.
However, the agreement is limited to the salary and utility allowance adjustments for 2026. Future negotiations will still have to consider the financial position of the NLA when determining any further changes to workers’ pay.
