The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has called on government to stop bemoaning the state of Ghana’s economy and instead speed up procedures towards revising the current minimum wage.
“Life must go on for workers. But with all these increases on the way, we cannot continue to go on”, said Mr Kofi Asamoah, Deputy General Secretary (Operations) of the TUC.
Mr. Asamoah was referring to the increase in petroleum prices and the resultant increase in the prices of other goods and services, which he said, “has eroded the February salaries of workers”.
He was speaking at an executive committee meeting of the Northern Regional Council Labour of the TUC in Tamale on Tuesday.
Mr. Asamoah said while workers are aware of the economic quagmire into which Ghana has sunk, they also realise that: “it is a fact of life that when one inherits something, he inherits its liabilities as well.”
He therefore, appealed to government not only to quicken the revision of the minimum wage for workers but also to de-freeze their end-of-service benefits and re-introduce leave allowances.
He said if top former government officials still needed an End-of-Service Benefit (ESB) after their term of office, “then what can be said of the numerous retired poor workers, who enjoyed no privileges at all while rendering service to the country.”
Mr. Asamoah said the standard of living of retired Ghanaian workers has deteriorated because of the freeze on ESB’s while most workers can no longer visit their villages because of the consolidation of leave allowances.
Mr. James Herbet Anquandah, Acting Head of Organisation, Department of the TUC, decried the lukewarm attitude of the youth towards the Congress’s activities.
He suggested that the Union should make deliberate efforts at whipping up their interest.
Mr. Anquandah suggested that final year students of Polytechnics and the Universities be invited to attend trade union meetings while lectures should be conducted to educate them on the TUC.
Mr Freeman Laweh Daniel, Chairman of the Northern Regional Council of Labour of the TUC, called on government to take a critical look at the present benefit schemes of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT).
Mr Daniel said it was necessary to review the benefit schemes because what retired workers take as lump sum benefits and monthly pension are “nothing good to write home about.”
He assured government that workers would support any austerity economic policies and programmes that it would undertake to better the lot of Ghanaians.
Source: GhanaWeb
