Kofi Bentil blames government for labour sector unrest

Senior Vice President of IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil, has blamed the government of Ghana for being the cause of unrest within the labour sector of the country.

Speaking on Joy Newsfile programme, Mr Bentil highlighted the disparity between Article 71 officeholders and workers on the single-spine salary structure.

He added that the political leadership of the country has failed in dealing with public sector wages over time.

“Zero of the problems are with the public and civil servants. All the problems are with the leaders. When you employ somebody, the person’s wage is not a net loss to you because the person helps you to make more money than you pay them," he said.

“So if you take the civil and public servants, the government workers, whatever we’re paying them, if they were producing well enough, it will not be a net loss to you, it won’t be a problem, it will be a fraction of what they’re making,” he added.

Kofi Bentil further emphasized that the political leadership must again be blamed for the low productivity in the public sector.

“The public sector has about three times more qualifications than the private sector. And whenever they move, whether to international organizations or into the private sector, they produce massively. So why don’t they get the same levels of productivity when they’re in the civil and public service?"

“It’s because of the leadership and the political messing up of that space. It’s because people are appointing political misfits into office. It is simply because the leadership there is poor at every level.”

There is a deadlock between government and the labour unions who are demanding over 60% increment in the base pay of civil and public servants.

A proposal by government to increase salaries by 18% has flatly been rejected by Organised Labour.

According to the labour unions, their demand is influenced by the current economic crisis and the depleting purchasing power of their current salaries.

GA/ESA