TUC executive board meets today

The Executive Board of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) is to meet on Thursday to discuss the ?9,000 daily minimum wage announced by the government last Friday.

The decision was taken on Monday by the TUC’s Steering Committee at an emergency meeting to discuss the issue. The meeting which lasted more than three hours, was attended by the leadership of the TUC, departmental heads and all the 17 general secretaries of the national unions.

A source close to the TUC’s Public Affairs Department which disclosed these to The Ghanaian Times on Monday, said that the TUC Executives Board which comprised the Executive Committee, the regional chairmen and secretaries, and the general secretaries of the national unions, would deliberate extensively on the minimum wage issue and come out with the TUC’s stand.

The source hinted that after Thursday’s meeting, the TUC would hold a press conference on Friday to make its position known.

Meanwhile, the top hierarchy of the union remained tight-lipped with the excuse that their concerns would be made known at the appropriate time. On the contrary, the low level staff at the TUC headquarters the paper spoke with expressed anger and dissatisfaction with the new minimum wage announced by the government, saying “they are very insensitive as the ?9,000 is an insult to our survival.”

Frank Asmah, the New Times Corporation (NTC) local union chairman, said as far as he was concerned, there was no minimum wage as the Tripartite Committee was still consulting on an agreeable wage. “So far as the consultation is in progress, there is no official minimum wage,” he said.

A security officer, for his part, proposed ?20,000 as a fitting minimum wage and nothing else. Michael Boateng Mensah of Dizengoff Company Limited, said that the ?9,000 daily minimum wage was “far below a decent salary.”

He contended that it was not fair for the government to increase the minimum wage by only 26 per cent, in view of the nearly 100 per cent increase in the prices of petroleum products and the new utility tariffs to be enforced next month.

Fiifi Emmission, a printer, said that considering the high cost of living in the country, it was unjustifiable for government to peg the minimum wage of ?9,000. “How can you be working and receiving one dollar a day”? He suggested a minimum wage of ?15,000 to enable Ghanaian workers to meet his basic needs. For Cofie Emma, a public servant, the ?9,000 was alright.