An industrial relations expert, Kofi Davor says organized labour is agitating against the government because the leadership of the nation is acting as if the nation is not facing challenges.
He said the government is “doing things as if there is no problem at all…that is where I think the problem is.”
There have been series of demonstrations and agitations in Ghana’s labour front over the high cost of living, the inability of the government to increase the salaries of public sector workers among others.
Organized Labour is set to embark on a nationwide strike on Thursday to protest the current economic hardships in the country and the seeming failure of leadership to swiftly address these challenges.
Speaking on Eyewitness News, Mr. Davor recalled that although the existing situation in Ghana is better than in 1983, “we [Ghana] had a clear direction to where we were going whether for good or for bad.”
He dismissed assertions that organized labour do not recognize the fact the country is facing challenges but he called on the government “to sit up and see how leadership is managing these challenges. That is where I think the concern is.”
The industrial relations expert mentioned that Ghanaians are living in an uncertain economic situation where so many uncertainties abound.
“You get up and all you realize is that the price of everything is going up and we have left everything to the markets,” he complained.
According to him, a developing economy like that of Ghana should not “leave things to the market alone even though I admit that the market is important.”
Mr. Davor admonished government “to be up and doing in the way we manage so many things” warning that if effective measures are not taken immediately, “these agitations and demands will go on and on.”
He accused the National Labour Commission (NLC) and the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) for contributing to the frequent labour agitations by wrongly implementing the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS).
He said the two institutions continuously made “panic decisions” each time labour unions agitated over salaries by “rushing to satisfy the sections” that the agitations were about.
Mr. Davor said that there was no total costing for the SSSS implementation “and as at today, we cannot have a definite decision on what market premium is.”
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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