Workers demonstration must not be restricted -ICU

Mr Solomon Kotei, General Secretary of the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU), said Government should stop the police from using court injunctions to restrain workers who wished to embark on demonstrations to make genuine demands.

“The rampant nature of these injunctions may result in lawlessness because such actions by the police might be seen as repressive,” he said.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency at the weekend on the frequency of injunctions on workers, Mr Kotei said such demonstrations were only to make public the worries of workers to enable the Government to take prompt action.

He said the current low income of the worker and high levels of tariffs incapacitated the worker to cope with the consequences. Mr Kotei said: “As organised labour we felt we must make Government aware of the implications of these increases and how it would affect employees.”

“We are not comfortable with the increases in the utility tariffs,” he said.

Mr Kotei said in this particular year, Government had resisted many demonstrations adding “we do not understand why workers would be restricted if they want to let the world know their opinions on issues. We do not think this augurs well for freedom and justice”.