A Labour Economist and lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr. William Baah-Boateng, has advised government and organised labour to dialogue and resolve prevailing challenges, instead of engaging in a public warfare.
According to him, what appears to be extreme positions taken by government and the Trades Union Congress (TUC) would only worsen instability on the labour front.
Dr. Baah-Boateng said there must be a tripartite committee meeting between government, Employers Association of Ghana and Organised Labour to discuss and amicably resolve the raging stand-off over pay levels.
Dr. Baah-Boateng’s comments followed Saturday’s TUC ultimatum to government.
“We cannot afford this high cost of living with the current wages and salaries,” TUC Secretary-General, Kofi Asamoah, said. “We want all negotiations on the minimum wage and the base pay [to] finish before the May Day. We are sending a strong signal out there”.
On April 1, 2014, Finance Minister, Seth Terpker, restated government’s intension to freeze public sector pay at current levels.
The proposal, he said, was within “the Ho Forum on public sector pay sustainability to reduce the wage bill as a share of tax revenue, from 57 percent in 2013 to 35 percent by 2017”.
The idea, he added, was to, among other things, put Ghana “in compliance with the ECOWAS criterion of wage-to-revenue ratio…”
But, Organized Labour quickly dismissed the proposal in a deluge of statements issued after the proposal.
Speaking on Monday, Labour Economist, Dr. Baah-Boateng said, “The best way to go around all this is negotiation at the tripartite level. All the parties would come up with their concern; how the hardship is affecting them.
“Government is talking about [cutting down on] fiscal deficit and wage is part of the expenditure. Employers are also concerned about prices of their inputs, and Organised Labour is also concerned about their real income, so this can be resolved at the negotiation table. [It must not be] one party saying I have frozen wages and one party saying I have given you ultimatum”.
By: Martin Asiedu-Dartey/Citifmonline.com/Ghana