IN a quick response to workers’ agitation for the restoration of the End-of-Service Benefits (ESB), Government yesterday took a bold initiative to hold a 45-minute frank and open discussions with its social patners to work out plans to tackle the issue in earnest.
At the meeting was the Trades Union Secretary General, Mr Akwasi Adu-Amankwah and Mr Harry Amonoo, an Executive Member of the Ghana Employers’ Association, proprietor of Quancrete Investments and a former Ambassador.
Other members of the GEA delegation were Mr T. K. Gyau, a Council Member, and Mrs Rose Karikari-Annan, Executive Director.
Briefing the Graphic, Deputy Minister Joe Donkor, who represented government, said other partners at the meeting unanimously agreed that the flags which have been hoisted by unions constituting the Greater Accra Council of Labour be lowered.
He was optimistic that the goodwill so far shown will be forthcoming at the next meeting.
Mr Adu-Amankwah and Mrs Karikari-Annan, described the meeting as fruitful and positive and expressed the hope that the dialogue will result in the resolution of the impasse.
It was also agreed that the leaders at yesterday’s talks should consult their constituents and reconvene next Monday.
In another development, the TUC has added its voice to the call for an incomes policy to address the starvation wages that are the lot of working people in an inflationary economy, reports Shirly Quaicoo.
The Deputy Secretary General of the TUC, Mr Kofi Asamoah, who made the call, said the policy will enhance incomes and motivate workers to increase output.
He was addressing a meeting of the Central Regional Council of Labour of the TUC at Cape Coast yesterday.
It was attended by 54 unionists representing the 17 unions of the TUC.
Mr Asamoah also called on the government to look at policies and programmes of international bodies such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) before implementing them, noting, “most of these policies go to impoverish the developing countries rather than enhance their living conditions”.
He said the restoration of the ESB is necessary to ensure a platform for effective discussion of the scheme.
Mr Asamoah also urged government to address the urgent task of institutional reforms of bodies such as the Police Service and the National Media Commission to perform their functions more effectively to help sustain democratic dispensation.
In Accra, Togbe Adom Drayi II, acting Administrative Secretary of the TUC, said the call for a bi-partite meeting forms part of efforts by the union to compel government to defreeze the ESB, which was frozen by the previous administration, reports Charles Benoni Okine.
He said in an interview that although there is no justification for the government to continue to freeze the ESB while others enjoyed it, the union will continue to use dialogue as a tool to get government to accede to the call of the union to restore the ESB to workers.
On why employers will not be part of the meeting, Togbe Drayi said the issue at stake is between the workers and government and added that the employers will be invited to participate in subsequent meetings.
He said the pension scheme of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) is nothing to write home about, adding, “the ESB must be restored as a matter of urgency, to cushion workers when they retire”.
