Don’t use Ghanaian workers as scapegoats - TUC

The Trade Unions Congress (TUC) has cautioned government to desist from using Ghanaian workers as scapegoats in its efforts to deal with the nation's current wage bill and total government expenditure.

President John Mahama, in his State of the Nation address before Parliament, expressed concern over the growth rate of the country's wage bill after the implementation of the Single Spine Salary Structure.

He revealed that Ghana spends "a staggering 60.9% of our entire national revenue to pay public sector salaries," and hinted that government was going to take decisive measures to correct the situation.

Director of Labour Research and Policy Institute at the TUC, Kwabena Nyarko Otoo, told Citi News the current productivity challenges being faced could not be solved by the current posture adopted by government.

“Every one of our submissions to government has touched on productivity. We think it is such a big issue that you do not leave it to individual workers who might go to the office and do not have lights to work with, or work with typewriters,” he stated.

Mr. Otoo further cautioned: “We do not claim to have all the answers but if government cares about productivity, they should sit down with the unions and workers to seek the way forward in terms of increasing productivity.”

“It is a way of ‘scapegoating’ public sector pay by using the productivity question when in fact those talking about it are not ready to do anything about it,” he added.