TUC to take government to court

Kumasi, Sept 18, GNA - The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has threatened to take the government to court if it use two-and-a-half percent of workers social security contribution to fund the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

The Union, therefore, advised the President Kufuor not to sign the bill on the scheme into law.

Mr Jerry Addo, General Secretary of the Public utility Workers Union, however, said the Union was not against the NHIS.

He was speaking at addressing a forum on the government decision on the scheme organised for workers representatives drawn from all the 18 districts of Ashanti in Kumasi on Wednesday.

Mr Addo said the TUC was against the decision by government to use workers' money to fund the NHIS without proper consultation with organised labour.

He said the Union was of the view that the government had not fully exhausted all avenues of accessing funds for the scheme because the authorities felt that SSNIT provided ready and convenient source for funding the scheme.

Mr Addo said past governments had used the Social Security and National Issuance Trust (SSNIT) funds to such and extent that the fund did not grow to meet the demands and aspirations of workers. Mrs Georgina Opoku, Ashanti Regional chairperson of the TUC, said the Union could not understand why the government organised discussions to solicit views of Ghanaians on the scheme but rushed to pass the bill into law.

She said the government did not hold consultations with recognised bodies before sending he bill to Parliament for consideration and did not allow Ghanaians to carefully study the provisions of the bill. Mrs Opuku said the government's action indicated that it had already taken a decision on the scheme before seeking the views of the people.

She said since government did not consult SSNIT on the use of the two-and-a-half percent of workers contribution it wanted to impose the NHIS law on Ghanaians.