The Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC) is asking the government to publish the outcome of investigations into the review of the operations of SSNIT as soon as possible.
Organised labour believes that this should inform further deliberations on how to improve the Trust to ensure the welfare of employees.
The comments were contained in the TUC’s proposals to the Ministry of Finance for the 2019 budget.
“In 2017 the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of SSNIT commissioned a review of operations of SSNIT and promised the nation that the report of a review would be made public. We expect government to publish results of all investigations into the affairs of SSNIT without further delay,” a statement from the TUC said.
Amongst others, the TUC is proposing that the government initiates some policies in the 2019 Budget towards improving coverage of pension among informal economy workers.
Again, the TUC wants the 2019 budget to address issues of low wages by strictly enforcing the minimum wage.
“The minimum wage has been fixed at approximately US$2.00 a day in the last ten years. We cannot sustain growth with declining real purchasing power. One of the ways to address this challenge is to eliminate the distortions and inequities in pay across public sector institutions which the Single Spine Pay Policy has failed to address. Additionally, we expect bold measures to adequately protect all vulnerable workers by enforcing the national daily minimum wage.”
Also, TUC is asking that the government uses next year’s budget to outline clear measures that will show that the country is moving away from taxation to production.
“We expect the 2019 Budget to come up with very pragmatic measures to deal with the rising cost of living. The budget must spell out policies and programmes to translate the macroeconomic gains into a very significant reduction in the cost of living. Government must use the 2019 Budget to show how it is going to steer the economy away from taxation to production.”
Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta is expected to present the 2019 budget statement to Parliament next month.
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By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
