Agitations are on the decline - TUC boss

Mr Kwasi Adu-Amankwah, Secretary-General of Trades Union Congress (TUC), on Monday said the labour front was quiet as there were hardly any agitations.

"If anything, what we have now are worker complaints which do not constitute agitations. "When we talk of workers agitation, we mean public manifestation of worker grievances in the form of statements, resolutions, demonstrations and strikes."

Mr Adu-Amankwah was answering questions on what the Congress was doing to reduce the seemingly high number of worker agitations in the country at the beginning of a two-day training course for journalists.

The course, organised by the TUC in collaboration with the Media Foundation of West Africa, is aimed at equipping the 15 participants with skills and information to improve upon their reports on labour issues.

The topics included "History of the Ghana TUC", "Organisational Structure of the TUC", "Industrial Relations Act", "Labour Rights", "International Labour Laws and Conventions", "Collective Bargaining and the workings of the Tripartite Committee".

Mr Adu-Amankwah said the TUC was encouraging the merger of smaller unions to form bigger and stronger ones to enhance their viability to meet the demands of research, negotiations and payments.

He gave an example of the five different unions within the transport sector and said multiple and smaller labour groups within a single sector, compared to bigger ones, often lacked the numerical strength, viability and other resources to fight adequately for the interest of workers.

The TUC boss announced that it had entered into discussions with the government on a new minimum wage. He advised the labour reporters to use the expertise they would acquire to report accurately on labour issues to increase public understanding on labour issues.