Government of Ghana has reportedly spent in excess of Three Million (GHS3 million) of Ghana cedis on a three-day gathering of some Two Hundred and Twenty Labour Leaders at the Rock City Hotel, Kwahu Nkwatia to mull over strengthening tripartism in Ghana at the time Government battling with several threats of labour unrests.
The three-day merry-making gathering dubbed National Labour Conference begun on Sunday 27th February to Tuesday 1st March, 2022.
Meanwhile, two Teacher Unions have vowed not to attend the meeting under their present predicament as workers of Government of Ghana.
A source revealed that the Leadership of NAGRAT and Coalition of Concerned Teachers Ghana have boycotted the gathering claiming what they need is not tripartism.
For the National Executive Committee of NAGRAT, they couldn’t be part of the Conference with the dire economic situation afflicting the Ghanaian Worker. In their estimation, Leadership of Public Sector Organisations should be calling for interventions to ameliorate the plight of the worker, and not meeting in plush hotels.
To NAGRAT, what they need is salaries and income adjustment not a conference.
Similarly, the Coalition of Concerned Teachers Ghana says they did not attend the Labour Conference at Rock City Hotel because the prevailing labour environment couple with poor working conditions are what need to be addressed.
‘We don’t want the situation where government will perch on this conference to play a low-lying game for 2023 base pay negotiations which will begin some few months to come.
‘Is good we keep the labour environment tense and hostile so we can use it for our advantage in the pending negotiations of the base pay’. A source of the absenting Unions said.
The Hawk gathered that the leadership of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Ghana Federation of Labour are failing to implement a court decision in 2003 to put together a Labour Structure.
They are blaming TUC and GFL for lazing about and unduly delaying the Organized Labour structure since the 2003 when the Labour Act 2003 Act 651 was passed.
A situation, they alleged sits well with government because government enjoys disunity of the labour movement.
Speaking to us on condition of strict anonymity, he said, ‘Government of Ghana should rather focus on ensuring that the 2003 court decision is followed to the letter rather than wasting the scanty resources of the nation on conferences that would not yield any result.
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