A former Minister of Employment and Social Welfare under the New Patriotic Party(NPP) administration, Nana Akomoa has described as appalling, government’s handling of labour unions’ concern over their tier two pension funds.
Nana Akomoa said the recent labour agitation by the various groups could have been prevented if their demands were addressed.
About 12 labour unions are currently on strike over the non-payment of their tier two pension funds in a privately managed account.
Speaking to Citi News, Nana Akomoa said government should be blamed for the unrest.
[contextly_sidebar id=”6oR1626n9pDWB9MgLmkA3eiipZg6NMFw”]He said; “… it is difficult to understand what the government is trying to achieve. When you look at the law, it envisages that the tier two funds should be managed privately and not by a public institution… that means it has to be managed by private investment companies…”
He added that the legal action taken by government will back fire since it [government] has “no case.”
“The government has no case at all. Whether it goes to Court to seek compliance with what the government wants. Government has no case, selecting a private company to manage workers’ pension funds. Government has no business selecting the private company.”
He advised government to rather, “approve the private companies, license them and let them now go and make a competitive presentation to the labour unions then the labour unions will decide”
Nana Akomea is not the first to advise government to hand the management of the tier two pension funds to the labour groups.
A private legal practitioner, Yaw Oppong, over the weekend advised government to hand over the management of the pension funds to a private body.
“In my view since the Act says that it is privately funded and managed, and it comes from occupation or it is occupational- related, then the persons whose monies or whose properties are the subject of these particular instruments of trust, must be the ones who should appoint their own trustee because the basic principle of trust is that, the basic owner of the property is the one who will choose his own trustee …These monies belong to the workers, so it is the worker or the person whose monies have been deducted who should have the right to appoint his own trustee,” the legal practitioner argued.
By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana