Workers urge government to review economic policies

Koforidua, May 1, GNA- Workers in the Eastern region have called on the government to review its economic policies, as a matter of urgency, to give greater attention to problems facing agriculture, the cocoa sector and manufacturing industries.

They noted with concern that since the introduction of the trade liberalisation policy, trade and commerce instead of production and industrialisation, have dominated the economic base.

This was contained in a six-point resolution the workers passed at a forum held at Koforidua on Friday, as part of the activities to mark "May Day". The resolution regretted that the current economic policies has worsened the plight of the worker and brought about massive retrenchment of labour, high cost of living and unemployment while the high cost of fuel also affected every commodity.

The resolution expressed concern about the free fall of the cedi against major international currencies and called for sustainable measures to check the trend and regulate the outflow of the convertible currencies.

On the Ghana Universal Salary Structure (GUSS), the forum noted that the national Incomes policy has woefully failed to improve the plight of workers and called for a realistic salary structure to reflect the present living conditions.

On the Value Added Tax (VAT), the workers claimed that the present 10 per cent rate has led to price increases and said that any attempt to increase it further would worsen the plight of Ghanaians.

They, therefore, appealed to the President to withhold his presidential assent to the VAT Bill. The resolution noted with concern the inadequacies of the Social Security and National Insurance (SSNIT) pension scheme, and called for its review.

It was not happy with the present composition of the SSNIT board and called for a reduction of government representation and an increase of workers representation to "reflect the philosophy of the trust, which is, to help workers".

The forum noted that the administrative cost of SSNIT operations was too high, saying this had contributed to low pension benefits and called for a drastic review of the administrative cost.

The resolution said the proposed labour law sought to threaten the very existence of trade unions and called on all labour organisations and employers to ensure that the proposed law upheld and defended workers rights as enshrined in the Constitution and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions.