Government must create more jobs - TUC

Accra, May 1, GNA - Mr Kwasi Adu-Amankwah, Secretary General of the Ghana Trades Union Congress, on Monday said Government must play an active role in the creation of jobs for the teeming youth roaming the streets.

He said one way Government could actively create jobs was to introduce works in the area of sanitation, where they could be employed in large numbers.

Mr Adu-Amankwah made the suggestion in Accra, during this year's May Day when he addressed workers' parade on the theme: "Organised Labour in the Area of Increasing Global Challenge." The Day threw the searchlight on the threats of international policies on local policies and their effects on the workers in poor nations.

In their attempts to join the global community, governments of poor nations are forced to accept the unfair rules of the global game through excessive deregulation of the labour market, trade liberalisation, privatisation, and provision of general concession to attract foreign direct investment.

The consequences of such policies are that workers are found on the loser's side of the globalisation game and in some cases raising levels of unemployment.

Mr Adu-Amankwah pledged the willingness of organised labour to assist the government in job creation initiatives.

He said the Union recognised all the initiatives the Government was taking to ensure that Ghana took off economically, but noted that the challenges of underemployment and low incomes continued to threaten the survival of millions of workingmen and women in the informal economy, including those in the rural areas.

He re-echoed that one way to reduce the widening inequality of incomes was for Government to create decent jobs.

The Secretary-General recognised Government efforts towards the revitalisation of VALCO, the special initiatives in the agro-processing and the increased investment in the transport sector and urged it to consider reviving the railway sector as part of the initiatives. He expressed regret that there was a rather slow implementation of the Government's housing scheme at Borteyman in Nungua -Accra, and cited the housing deficit of between 350,000 and 400,000 houses that had existed since 1980 and called for a lot more effort in housing provision.

Mr Adu-Amankwah urged the Government to expedite action on the review of the Rent Act 1963, to enforce the Law as a means of protecting the working class from high rent advances covering two years instead of the lawful six months.

He urged the Government to adequately protect and ensure that workers, who lost their jobs as a result of re-organisation or closure of an enterprise, were compensated.

The Secretary-General urged workers unions in Ghana to avoid fragmentation and rise to the call for unity of the labour movement. The Ghana Police and Prisons bands provided brass band music at the parade.