Public service is regaining its importance - President

Kumasi, May 2, GNA- President John Agyekum Kufuor, has stated that the public service was regaining its importance, relevance and credibility through the government's on-going reforms of the public sector.

He said this improvement was largely as a result of the government undertaking the difficult and huge task of reversing the institutional decay in the sector that had accumulated over many years of neglect. President Kufuor said this in a speech read on his behalf by Mr Asamoah Owusu-Ansah, Ashanti Regional Minister at a May Day rally in Kumasi on Tuesday.

The theme for the Day was "Labour and Nation Building, 50 Years and Beyond" and was attended by over hundreds of various unionised workers group including industrial and commercial workers.

The workers marched through some of the principal streets in the metropolis with placards some of which read, "Government stop the arbitrary use of the SSNIT fund", "Government, you are deceiving workers" and "We want good salaries".

Others had the inscriptions, "Your Excellency, assist STC with more buses for CAN 2008", "Improved economy demands improved wages", "The value is the same but the suffering is not the same" and "National Labour Commission work hard to abate rampant strikes in the country". President Kufuor was happy that the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) have come together at the parade after about two years of disagreement.

He urged the leadership and the ranks of both groups to sustain the jubilee spirit of accommodation and co-operation and pull together to confront problems and challenges facing them and the country. He said his administration would continue to support the tripartite consultative process and all measures that would sustain industrial peace and the well being of workers.

Mr Akwasi Adu-Amankwah, Secretary-General of the TUC in an address read by Mr Robert A. Asekbata, Ashanti Regional Secretary of TUC, said the congress has proposed living wage as one way of reducing the salary inequalities.

He cautioned that the persisting gross inequalities in incomes demonstrated that labour was not getting its fair share of the results of its contribution to nation building and this does not augur well for the economic and social responsibility of the country. "Turbulent industrial relations lie ahead if government and employers do not sit up to address the growing demand for better incomes in an appropriate manner", he said.

Seventeen individual workers were honoured with a 14-inch colour television set each for their hard work and commitment to duty.