Yesterday, organised labour in Ghana joined the rest of the world to celebrate May Day.
Congratulations to all Ghanaian workers, both public- and private-sector workers!
At the national May Day parade held in Bolgatanga, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo spoke about achievements of his administration so far as workers were concerned.
For instance, he mentioned the 30-per cent increment over the 2022 base pay for public-sector workers on the Single Spine Salary Structure which took effect on January 1, 2023 after a series of consultations and consensus building within the Public Services Joint Standing Negotiating Committee.
Also, he gave the assurance that the government would protect incomes and pensions in these challenging times.
Besides the achievements, he acknowledged the economic challenges in the country occasioned principally by COVID-19 and the effects exacerbated by the Russia-Ukraine war.
Then he spoke about the resolve of his administration to fix the challenges to bring some relief to Ghanaians.
We believe the speech of President Akufo-Addo is reassuring, so organised labour and, of course, the whole nation should pray that the issues he has raised would be given the necessary attention by his administration.
What he said falls in line with the theme for yesterday’s celebration, “Protecting Incomes and Pensions in an Era of Economic Crisis: Our Responsibility”, a theme the President himself said was most appropriate.
Then he also agreed with a position by organised labour that “Protecting Incomes and Pensions in an Era of Economic Crisis is Our Responsibility”.
The President and, for that matter, the government has accepted responsibility of what it has to do to ease the difficulties in the country to bring workers some relief.
Even though the President mostly spoke about what would bring workers happiness, it is not wrong to say that when workers experience some relief, the whole nation would share in it.
For instance, the workers would procure their needs and traders would have the buyers.
Also, the difficulties being faced by families whose breadwinners are formal workers would reduce.
Now, the question is, should workers fold their arms to wait for the efforts of the government to materialise before they play their roles?
There is the need for organised labour to play the necessary roles to support the government in achieving all that it has purposed to do.
Sometimes, certain positions taken by workers are antagonistic, to say the least, which draw back the progress of the nation.
We appeal to the leadership of organised labour to educate workers to accept that they play critical roles in national development and they must always play such roles with the spirit of sacrifice.
We are happy that President Akufo-Addo himself has acknowledged the fact that in spite of the present challenges, the government and organised labour have come to certain agreements through consensus.
We expect that henceforth, workers would ease their entrenched positions, where it matters most, bearing in mind their part of the bargain to take our dear country out of its economic doldrums onto a place of development which every Ghanaian can pride himself or herself on.
Congratulations once again to organised labour on their special day and on their contribution to national development so far!
