B/A Minister-Designate advises workers

Duayaw-Nkwanta (B/A) May 2 GNA - Mr. Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister-designate has appealed to workers to use laid down mechanizations for resolving industrial disputes other than to resort to strike actions.

He made the appeal at the regional celebration of May Day at Duayaw-Nkwanta, capital of Tano North District on Monday. Mr. Baffour-Awuah expressed concern about recent strikes, threats of strike and agitations by several workers' unions for better remunerations and conditions of service, without considering that a good income policy that reflected a reward system based on productivity, could be formulated only within a very strong and stable national income.

He explained that government had taken and implemented a number of interventions to ameliorate the living conditions of not only workers in the formal sector but also those in the informal sector, including farmers and fishermen.

The in-coming Regional Minister said the government acknowledged that workers were facing very serious challenges because of the harsh but inevitable economic policies it was pursuing.

"But the fact that you have borne with us all this while is an indication that you agree that we must implement such policies to secure a better future for our children and ourselves".

Mr. Baffour-Awuah expressed concern about how international developments had adversely affected the national economy in no small measures.

He mentioned external prices for the country's traditional exports, inadequate foreign direct investment, technological changes, particularly the dramatic developments in communication and information processing and more importantly issues associated with economic and political risks, which had raised the prices of petroleum products on the international market to astronomical levels.

Mr. Baffour-Awuah expressed the hope that the leadership of organised labour would work in unison with government to achieve the goal of improving the welfare of not only workers but also the generality of people in the country.

He appealed to workers to work harder to increase productivity in all spheres of national endeavour to help the government to propel the country into a middle-income status.

Alhaji Sadiq Yakubu Bukari, Regional Secretary of Trades Union Congress appealed to the government to consider the plight of workers when adopting economic policies.

This can be done when various stakeholders were involved in the policy-making process, he said and urged the government to properly involve organised labour in all stages in the public sector reform process to avoid serious disturbances on the industrial scene. Twelve dedicated and hardworking workers were awarded for their services with prizes ranging from TV sets, ghetto blaster cassette radios, wall clocks and certificates.