Ghana’s Trade Union wants employers to pay workers appropriately to prevent corruption

The TUC has entreated employers to pay their employees the wages they deserve.
According to the TUC meagre salaries may cause workers to be corrupt.
he said a united front for the unions under the TUC can help bargain for better wages.

The Chairman of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Reverend Richard Kwasi Yeboah has called on employers in Ghana to pay their workers enough to corruption among employees.

His comment comes ahead of the implementation of the 2020 National Daily Minimum Wage (NDMW) which has gone up 11% over the 2019 figure of GHC 10.65 to GHC11.82.

Rev Richard Kwasi Yeboah said it was important for the different worker's unions across the country to join forces with similar groups to negotiate better remuneration for their members.

“For now what workers are getting, they can’t live on that and that leads to corruption. We’re all currently talking about a lot of corruption in Ghana. To help mitigate that we the unions need to band together to negotiate for better salaries for our people.”

He made the comments at a forum organized by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) and the TUC on mergers in Trade Unions.

Trade Unions encouraged to merge

Stakeholders on labour and employment issues at the forum said the woes of the Ghanaian workers would get worse if the different worker’s unions in the country do not merge to strengthen their ability to negotiate.

Currently, the Trades Union Congress which is the main umbrella organization for trade union activities in Ghana has about 21 affiliate unions.

Rev Yeboah lamented over the negative impact of a divisive front on the work of unions. “Under the TUC there are multiple unions in the same sector and this leads to some form of division, a situation that government and employers take advantage of to the detriment of workers.”