Workers threaten to demonstrate on September 24

Sunyani, Sept 17, GNA- Organised labour may take to the streets on September 24 to register their formal disapproval of the passing of the National Health Insurance (NHI) bill, Mr. Dan Ayim Antwi, General Secretary of the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) said on Wednesday.

He was addressing a forum organized by Brong-Ahafo Regional Council of Labour and attended by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Civil Servants Association (CSA), Ghana Registered Nurses Association (GRNA) and the Judicial Services Staff Association of Ghana (JUSSAG).

Mr Antwi said the NHI Law, "recently rushed and passed by Parliament", is awaiting Presidential Assent "against earlier criticisms and salient suggestions offered by Ghanaian workers against the government's proposed deduction of two-and-a-half percent from their Social Security Pension Fund."

He repeated the stand by the organized labour and wondered why the Government defied arguments raised by the labour front, especially concerning the proposed deductions and rushed the bill through.

Mr Antwi said experience has shown that some national health insurance schemes in some countries have failed due to their poor implementation.

"Despite all the good things being said about the scheme by the government the leadership of organized labour finds it difficult to see light at the end of the tunnel concerning its life span, should it take off", he added.

Mr. I.K. Yanney, Head of Policy Research Department of TUC, said if there were any group of people who contributed to the financial growth of the nation then it is workers.

He cited the monthly payment of income tax as one of the few areas of workers' contributions to the national coffers.

The workers later affirmed the contents of an earlier resolution adopted on August 15 at a similar meeting and called on the leadership of the national secretariat of the labour front to pursue it.

In the five-point resolution the workers said they supported the proposed scheme but opposed the two-and-a-half percent deduction.

Building collapses on woman

Yendi (N/R), Sept 17, GNA- Madam Abiba Ibrahim, 42, died on Monday when her kitchen wall collapsed on her during a downpour. Madam Abiba who lived at Kunfong, a suburb of Yendi, was in the kitchen with two others, Miss Sana Alhassan and Miss Sana Adam when the incident occurred but they escaped unhurt.

Mallam Ibrahim Mohammed, husband of the deceased, told the GNA in Yendi that the incident happened at about 1915 hours when a block from the collapsing kitchen fell on Madam Abiba's head. He said he took is wife to the Yendi Hospital where she was pronounced dead.