Organised Labour welcomes 10% wage hike

Organised Labour has welcomed the 10% hike increment of the minimum wage although the group said it could have been better.

The National Tripartite Committee on Wednesday announced the increment from GHS8 to GHS8.80. The committee, with representation from the Ghana Employers Association, Organised Labour and Government, also recommended that the national daily wage be exempted from tax.

Even though its implementation date is January, 2017, Secretary General of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Dr Yaw Baah has expressed satisfaction with how the negotiations went.

“We would have been happier if we had better than this but we don’t so half a loaf is better than none,” Dr Baah told Class News on Wednesday.

“This is collective bargaining, this is negotiations so definitely we bargained for something higher, we put on the table something higher than this but we had to compromise so at the end, this is what the three of us agreed so for us, this is a great deal for those who were receiving their minimum wage in June and July without any back pay. This one it doesn’t matter which government comes into power, we have agreed. January 31, 2017, people are going to be moved to the new salary scale. All those who do not pay minimum wage, the communiqué issued [yesterday] says they should start paying minimum wage starting from January 2017…” he stated.