Tripartite Committee set to start negotiations
Organized labour slams those enjoying more than others
Dr. Anthony Yaw Baah, General Secretary of the Ghana Trades Union Congress, TUC, has described current negotiations for a new minimum wage as a “do or die” affair.
According to him, he hasn’t led a protest since taking office because he believes labour must always be biased towards dialogue.
“We hardly want to strike because strike is a very difficult thing to do. It is like war, so before we declare war on the employers, you have to make sure that you have good reason, this time, we have good reason to do it. Therefore, we caution that the employers must listen to us,” he said in an interview on Joy News.
He stressed the demand by organized labour that the new minimum wage must be pegged to inflation, pointing out that in July 2021, inflation was 9% but that it was now at 19.4% and can be felt in pockets. “Workers should not be left to suffer alone.
“If your employer is the government, everybody must enjoy if there is enjoyment and everybody should suffer if there is suffering, but we don’t have that situation now, you have a few … very very few who are enjoying, the rest of us are suffering and that should change,” he lamented.
“The National Tripartite Committee has started a process to determine the Minimum Wage, for us, that is a do and die affair, we are going to make sure that minimum wage for workers for this year should not be below inflation,” he charged.
“And this would be extended to public sector workers as well, so there is a battle ahead of us and I can see organized labour is ready to fight,” he warned.
Anthony Yaw Baah, Secretary-General of TUC