Government’s meeting with the striking labour unions on Tuesday over the tier two pension funds has ended in a deadlock.
This was after the striking unions insisted on consulting their lawyers before continuing with the discussions.
The meeting, which lasted for about an hour was therefore postponed to Wednesday.
About 12 labour groups embarked on an indefinite strike on Wednesday, October 22 to protest the non-payment of their tier two pension funds into a privately managed account.
Speaking to Citi News, the acting Secretary of the Health Service Workers Union(HSWU), Reynolds Tekorang said the unions have to respond to the writ filed by government as demanded by law before they can negotiate.
[contextly_sidebar id=”pmjDfEdnUOSPiGJKfQeTwFbkYPlj1VHF”]“And we have told them in a plain language that there is a writ of summons hanging on our heads so they must allow us. We didn’t come here to start the negotiation. We showed up for everybody to see that yes, we are ready to negotiate, but before we negotiate there is a writ of summons hanging on our heads and we must see our lawyers so that we clear the issue,” Tenkorang explained.
“The lawyers say we have just eight days to respond.Tomorrow we will be meeting them but with a condition. We don’t know how busy our lawyers are, we have to get our lawyers, and then when we finish talking to our lawyers, we will definitely inform government and then we will meet them but it is dependent on when we will finish consulting our lawyers,” he added.
Meanwhile a deputy Minister for Communication, Felix Ofosu Kwakye has said government will continue to dialogue with labour to address their concerns.
“We consider today’s meeting as an improvement of the situation. Both parties expressed the commitment to continue further dialogue on the matter.We had indicated that government was willing to have a dialogue with the various labour unions with the view to finding amicable settlements to all the issues that were on board.
“…It has been decided that pending consultations with some stakeholders, our dialogue will continue sometime tomorrow if everything goes as planned,” the Minister explained.
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By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana