Respect agreement on minimum wage -Adu-Amankwaah

Mr. Kwasi Adu-Amankwaah, Secretary-General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), has called on the Labour Inspectorate Division of the Ministry of Manpower Development and Employment to ensure that all employers abide by the new national daily minimum wage.

The call comes amidst reports that some employers particularly, Communication Centre Operators, pay as low as 2,000 cedis a day to their employees.

Mr. Adu-Amankwaah, who was addressing a meeting of the Kumasi District Council of Labour, noted that the TUC lacked the legal authority to champion the course of such workers since they were outside the protection of the trades union.

The meeting was to provide a forum for the leadership of the TUC to brief the Council on reasons that informed the arrival at the new minimum daily wage by the Tripartite Committee and their position on the 2003 budget.

He stated that the minimum wage of 9,200 cedis though inadequate, represented a real value increase over that of the previous years.

The Secretary-General said it went beyond just "restoration of what had been lost through inflation as always had been the case in the past".

Mr Adu-Amankwaah told the council that this was achieved mainly because they put the issue in the public domain and said, "we should not only sit down and complain but make our voices heard".

He spoke of the need for government to fully consult labour to enable it have input into all important issues that affect the worker.

Touching on the government's budget, he repeated the TUC's opposition to the new Petroleum Tax, insisting that, taking more taxes from petroleum could create problems.

Mr Adu-Amankwaah said although many countries derive a lot of income from petroleum tax, care must be taken so that Ghanaians do not become over-burdened.

The TUC Secretary General asked the government and employers to support workers to acquire credit for household items.