Organised Labour to demonstrate against SSNIT deduction.

Tema, Sept. 17, GNA -- Organised Labour have decided to take to the streets in the regional capitals on Wednesday, September 24 to protest against the deduction of two and a half percent of their Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) contributions to fund the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

Mr Kofi Asamoah, Deputy Secretary General (Operations), who announced this at a meeting of Organised Labour on Wednesday to discuss the position of labour on NHIS, emphasised, "we were clear in our submissions to the government that the deduction of workers contributions from SSNIT pension scheme to fund the health insurance scheme is non-negotiable.

SSNIT is not for government, therefore, if the authorities want to use part of the SSNIT fund for an important programme like the National Health Insurance Scheme, they have to consult the contributors. Mr Asamoah said, "we don't accept the fact that the government will give a guarantee", so that in future, if the pension scheme is found to be collapsing, the government will come in to assist.

He explained that if the government wanted to deduct the two and a half percent pension contribution from each worker as a loan, they should have sat down with the owners of the money to find out how feasible the loan would be.

In this case, there was no consultation with SSNIT management or the board to discuss the deduction before the NHIS bill was placed before Parliament.

In addition, the NPP manifesto states that their government will not use SSNIT money to fund the National Health Insurance. The Deputy Secretary General said it is true that NHIS is good, but if it is not properly handled, the scheme will face more problems, stressing we realised that our concerns were not addressed, while those addressed were not relevant.

He said organised labour are prepared to initiate many moves apart from the impending demonstration, to stop the government from the deduction of the two and half per cent, including going to court to test the legality of the deduction.

Mr Asamoah pointed out that organised labour is protesting against the National Health Insurance Law as it stands now, because the view has been expressed that since the idea of National Health Insurance is a good one, now that the law has been passed, everybody is expected to rally round it and ensure its successful implementation.

However, attractive as this view may be, a close scrutiny shows it to be misguided. For, if there are serious problems with the provisions of the law that may hamper its effective implementation, as it is the view of Organised Labour, the proper thing to do is to identify those problem areas and correct them now, before moving to the implementation stage. Mr Asamoah said the government's interest in appropriating money from SSNIT is simply because the fund provides a ready and convenient source for funding NHIS, adding, "this opportunist policy prevents government from rising up to the challenge of exploring other resources of funding for the scheme."

He said it is common knowledge that government revenue from tax is limited mainly to proceeds from the formal sector, while substantial economic activity in the informal sector is not covered by tax net, sadly, very little is being done to deal with this situation. During an open forum, other members of Organised Labour that were represented by the GNAT, Civil Servants Association, Ghana Registered Nurses Association and Judicial Services Staff Association of Ghana supported the demonstration and called on all workers to take part in the protest march. 17 Sept. 03