Ghana Trades Union Congress demands serious political debates of national issues
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has demanded of the political parties and their candidates’ serious debates over the main pressing issues confronting the people as the country prepared towards the 2012 general elections.
It said what the nation needed was “a clear vision of the future of Ghana and a concrete policy alternatives that have the capacity to transform our economy and lift our people out of the quagmire of mass poverty into the middle income where social equity and justice prevail.”
Workers would not accept politics of insults, personality attacks and least of all, any incitement to violence.
Mr Kofi Asamoah, the Secretary-General, stated the position of the labour union in speech at the eighth quadrennial delegates’ conference of the Public Services Workers Union (PSWU) in Kumasi on Monday.
He said the lack of civility and politicization of almost everything were generating unnecessary political tension that was making everyone including investors’ jittery.
Additionally “it also deprive the people the opportunity to discuss with and demand answers from the potential ruler on how best to fix the monumental challenges that face them.”
Touching on the theme, “Improving public sector productivity for accelerated nation development: The role of the Union”, Mr Asamoah welcomed the government’s decision to link public sector pay to productivity as announced in the 2012 budget statement.
He pledged labour’s support for the initiative and said they were prepared to go to every length to ensure its realization.
“We do this in the knowledge that increasing productivity enlarges the economy’s pie from which our members living conditions can be improved.”
The Secretary-General used the occasion to also highlight the need to take keener interest in the new pension scheme.
He urged all affiliate unions of the TUC to team up with their employers for “master trust schemes for management of our members’ pension funds under the second tier.”
This, he noted, would allow them to exercise some control over how pension funds are managed.
Mr Antwi Boasiako Sekyere, Deputy Minister for Employment and Social Welfare, said measuring and rewarding employee productivity was a key factor in the implementation of the Single Spine Pay Policy.
“Unless there is a considerable improvement in the productivity of workers the system might not be sustainable.”
He said there was the need for more innovation and understanding in dealing with public sector productivity and how to measure it.
The Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI) in collaboration with the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) have therefore been tasked by the Government to come out with indicators and performance management processes and procedures to aid the application of performance-related pay.
The General Secretary of the PSWU, Mr Abraham Okine, called for the resourcing of public sector organizations to make them productive, warning that any nation that toyed with this sector would be toying with its socio-economic development.
Source: GNA