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TUC asks government to enforce minimum wage
Koforidua, April 07, Ghanadot/GNA- The
Trades Union Congress (TUC), has called on government to
enforce the minimum wage act, to ensure that employers did
not pay workers below the stipulated wage.
The TUC believed that the reluctance of employers to pay the
minimum wage was not because they could not afford, it but
rather due to the fact that government was not enforcing the
act to the letter.
Dr Yaw Baah, Director of Research of the TUC, who made the
call during a forum in Koforidua on Monday, expressed worry
that many workers, especially in the district assemblies
were paid far below the minimum wage.
“It is appalling to note that the minimum wage, which is
only GH¢67.5 per month is not being paid by employers,
especially those in the government sector with the district
assemblies as the worse defaulters” he lamented.
Dr Baah said it was not enough announcing increment in
minimum wage without monitoring to ensure that employers
adhered to it and urged government to as a matter of urgency
see to it that workers had what was due them.
According to Dr Baah after series of meetings with union
members in most of the regions, it came to light that most
of the assembly workers and those in the tourism industry
were not paying the minimum wage and gave the assurance that
the TUC would take up the issue to correct the anomaly.
Touching on the public sector salary reforms, he noted that
about 23 percent of public workers in Ghana lived below the
poverty line and the least paid in Africa except the Zambia.
In that direction, Dr Baah disclosed that government, TUC
and the Ghana Employers Association (GEA) had agreed on a
‘living wage’ to make life comfortable for Ghanaian workers.
He explained that the new living wage policy would consider
four persons including a spouse and two kids in the payment
of salary and urged union workers to be committed to their
work while the TUC pushed the government for the well -being
of Ghanaian workers.
The forum is part of regional interaction with members of
the TUC to solicit their inputs towards the annual congress
to be held in August.
GNA
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