… Are workers enthused?
By Bernard Ato ARTHUR
After exhaustive consultations for over the past four weeks, the National Tripartite Committee (NTC) has agreed on an increase on the 2008 National Daily Minimum Wage, which stood at Gh¢2.25 with effect from April 1, this year.
The committee, which started a series of meetings late February this year, concluded its negotiations on the 2009 daily minimum wage last Friday, April 3.
Kofi Asamoah, the secretary-general of the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC) disclosed that there was serious agitation at certain points of negotiations because government had budgeted for a 12.5% increase and argued that if it is pushed further it will affect government’s expenditure for the year.
He also blamed the delay in determining the new minimum wage largely on the political transition process. The sub-technical committee also works out modalities to restore the face value lost as a result of inflation, among other things.
In a communiqué issued and signed by Stephen Amoanor Kwao, Minister for Employment and Social Welfare, Alex Frimpong, acting Executive Director of Ghana Employers Association and Kofi Asamoah, Secretary-General of TUC, it is noted that the minimum wage is tax exempt, and all institutions and establishments which currently pay below the new wage are mandated to adjust wages accordingly.
While a cross-section of workers who spoke to BusinessWeek noted that they had anticipated government would have been much more magnanimous to workers, a labour analyst noted that the time is rife for government to desist from invariably calling on labour to make sacrifices.
Government has therefore been admonished to consider areas of the national budget where cuts can be made to cushion labour in next year’s public spending plans.
“The government knows the untold economic hardship that workers in the country endure, we therefore need to be sufficiently motivated in order to give off our best,” some workers lamented.
By Bernard Ato ARTHUR
After exhaustive consultations for over the past four weeks, the National Tripartite Committee (NTC) has agreed on an increase on the 2008 National Daily Minimum Wage, which stood at Gh¢2.25 with effect from April 1, this year.
The committee, which started a series of meetings late February this year, concluded its negotiations on the 2009 daily minimum wage last Friday, April 3.
Kofi Asamoah, the secretary-general of the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC) disclosed that there was serious agitation at certain points of negotiations because government had budgeted for a 12.5% increase and argued that if it is pushed further it will affect government’s expenditure for the year.
He also blamed the delay in determining the new minimum wage largely on the political transition process. The sub-technical committee also works out modalities to restore the face value lost as a result of inflation, among other things.
In a communiqué issued and signed by Stephen Amoanor Kwao, Minister for Employment and Social Welfare, Alex Frimpong, acting Executive Director of Ghana Employers Association and Kofi Asamoah, Secretary-General of TUC, it is noted that the minimum wage is tax exempt, and all institutions and establishments which currently pay below the new wage are mandated to adjust wages accordingly.
While a cross-section of workers who spoke to BusinessWeek noted that they had anticipated government would have been much more magnanimous to workers, a labour analyst noted that the time is rife for government to desist from invariably calling on labour to make sacrifices.
Government has therefore been admonished to consider areas of the national budget where cuts can be made to cushion labour in next year’s public spending plans.
“The government knows the untold economic hardship that workers in the country endure, we therefore need to be sufficiently motivated in order to give off our best,” some workers lamented.
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