The labour unions on strike have expressed surprise at the deafening silence from the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) over the confusion between labour and government over who should be the trustee of their tier two pension funds.
The coordinator of the forum for all the labour unions in Ghana, Raynous Tenkoreng said “we are even surprised that they are quiet especially the boss.”
Twelve labour unions on Wednesday, embarked on an indefinite strike over government’s failure to pay public sector workers their tier two pension funds into a private account.
[contextly_sidebar id=”ub0iISJtsB1i8iS7d5oLaFGMPXdvmrlA”]The Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Haruna Iddrisu has assured that the money is “intact and it’s with the Bank of Ghana.” but failed to disclose the amount involved.
Speaking on the Eye Witness News on Friday, the coordinator insisted that “the law says that tier two is privately managed, it is not state managed.”
He added that “it is occupational; it [belongs to the] health sector people, education sector people and so on and it is a defined benefit and the law says that once the contributions are made they are all vested in the employees, it is not vested in the state.”
Government has however filed a suit to “seek interpretation” of the Pensions Act.
Raynous Tenkoreng also blamed the government for the strike action saying “if there is no money they should tell us so that we sit down to talk instead of the minister going round…spewing wrong information,” adding that they met government but could not resolve the issue.
Meanwhile, a labour consultant, Austin gamey has said the NPRA should not be bothered.
“I do not think at this point in time it’s so much about the regulator per se but maybe at the appropriate time when they want their opinion they could answer those questions.”
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By: Godwin Allotey Akweiteh/citifmonline.com/Ghana