Business News of Saturday, 22 February 2003

Source: gna

Tripartite Committee fails to reach agreement

The Tripartite Committee made up of labour, the government and employers on Friday failed to reach agreement for a new minimum wage after several days of negotiations.

The government and the Ghana Employers' Association (GEA) on one hand and Trades Union Congress on the other failed to bridge the gap between them. The government is holding a press conference on Friday on the issue.

Reliable sources told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra after Friday's crucial talks that the government and GEA edged up their offer to 9,000 cedis per diem while the TUC also climbed down to 10,000 cedis.

The current daily minimum wage is 7,150 cedis.

Workers have been pressing hard for a new minimum wage following fuel price hike of more than 90 per cent and projected increases in tariffs of utilities next month.

The TUC demanded 68 per cent increase in the minimum wage while the government was offering about 22 per cent at the beginning but the TUC had scaled down to about 40 per cent while the government had moved up to about 26 per cent at the time of filing this report.