Jobs On the Line As Minimum Wage is Decided Today

The fate of thousand of workers will be decided on the basis of what happens today at the Conference Room of the Ministry of Manpower Development and Employment where the National Tripartite Committee meets in a last effort to reach a compromise on the daily national minimum wage.

"Ghanaians workers will either be smiling from today, or smile today and curse themselves tomorrow depending on what happens at the meeting on Friday," said a non-Tripartite Committee employer who expressed misgivings over the trend of discussions.

Explaining, the employer said that the fate of most employees will be decided after the minimum wage has been set, adding that, "after all the talking has been done and conclusions drawn and decisions made, the ability to pay is what will come into play".

Sources close to the negotiation intimate that while the TUC is demanding ?10,750 as the minimum wage, the Ghana Employers Association says it cannot go beyond ?8,800 while government has pegged its offer at ?8,700.

Explaining the implications of the figures, the employer who was emphatic that his views reflected the GEA's said that the figure of ?8,800 was arrived at after the private sector had "critically assessed itself and its strength".

"Let us equate the issue to a plate containing a certain amount of food being passed around 20 people. If everybody acknowledges the need for all the 20 to have a bite no matter how small, then everybody can be served, otherwise once a few people get greedy and take more than necessary, the others have to starve once the plate is empty," he said.

"It is the same with the financial strength of the private sector. Since we generate what we pay workers with based on what they produce and therefore have a fixed amount to pay them, if the demand for wages exceeds what we can afford to pay, then the best and most reasonable thing will be to pay with what we have and dismiss those who we won't have money to pay."

Giving an estimate of how many people are likely to be affected by such an exercise, the employer mentioned "at least 25% of the work force in the private sector".

Already, according to captains in the timber industry, any figure beyond ?8,400 will mean the retrenchment of about 45% of the workforce in that industry.

A recent survey by the CDD showed that 79% of Ghanaians were not favourably disposed to retrenchment of labour.

The Government is also said to have warned that the TUC's insistence on a 68% increase in wages will fuel inflation and lead to reduction of staff in the Civil Service.

Even though the ?8,700 being offered by the government is said to have been rejected by the TUC, defenders of government take pride in the fact that it is the first time that any government in living memory has offered more than the equivalent of US $1 as daily minimum wage.

"For a government that has within two years restored the End of Service Benefits (ESB) abolished by the NDC government and raised the daily minimum wage from ?4,200 to the current ?7,150, workers should not fail to appreciate all the good intentions of the administration for the economy as a whole and workers in particular," said a government official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, a press conference on the wage and salary adjustment issue, to be jointly addressed by Finance Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo, and Manpower Development and Employment Minister, Mrs. Cecilia Bannerman will be held at the Ministry of information at 3pm today.