Growing inequality is a threat to our democracy, TUC warns

By Ebenezer Hanson
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) of Ghana has called on the government to take immediate steps to address the ever growing inequality between the rich minority and the poor majority, warning that the imbalance could undermine the country’s nascent democracy.
“Government must take urgent and concrete steps to bridge the ever growing gap between the minority rich and the poor as such a state of affairs could potentially undermine the country’s growing democracy,” warned Mr. Kofi Asamoah, Secretary- General of the TUC, at this year’s May Day celebrations at the Independence Square last Friday.
To this end, he urged Prof. Atta Mills-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) to embark upon economic and social policies that to seek to bridge the gap thereby giving meaning to the NDC’s claim to social-democratic credentials upon which it canvassed for and won the mandate of Ghanaians.
“A large majority of Ghanaian workers receive take-home-pay that cannot take them home. Even those of us who are employed in the formal economy receive very low wages that assure us of a decent living standard. The recent increase in the minimum wage is largely nominal if account is taken of the rate of depreciation of the cedi against the major currencies and the current rate of inflation. There is no real gain. We are likely to experience a significant fall in real wages this year. This has serious implications for the Decent Work Agenda Poverty Reduction Strategy.” he noted.
In addition, Mr.Asamoah urged the government to continue, expand and deepen the social interventions pursued by the previous government, which included the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), the School Feeding Programme (SFP), the Metro Mass Transport and the Lively Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP)
The TUC, he said, was equally concerned about the about employment security of labour and was therefore worried about a recent high court ruling which said “employers could terminate the employment of their employees without giving any reason”. In the TUC’s view this could severely undermine the consensus reached in the various tripartite consultations that led to the passage of the law.
“The ruling of the High Court continues to be a source of unrest among workers as some employees are using the ruling as basis not only to get rid of so-called trouble workers and unionists but also to circumvent laid down regulation on redundancy declaration and obligation arising there from”.
The theme for the celebration was, “Improved Standard of living through Decent Work-a Pre-requisite for sustaining Democratic Governance”.
In his maiden address at May Day celebrations, coming exactly after 125 days in office, President John Mills first reminisced occasions when he participated in May Day celebrations first as university teacher with TEWU, then as Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner and later as Vice President.
Responding to some of the issues raised the TUC, President Mills called on all Ghanaians to put aside partisanship and collectively find home-grown solutions to the global economic crises of which Ghana is not immune.
He disclosed that he task a committee to review the recent Pension Law which was passed last year. He added that government is committed to the payment of the single spine salary. Besides, he tasked all boards to take action on wrongful dismissals that have taken place in the past.
Prof. Mills appealed to junior workers whose salaries had not seen any improvement over the last three years to be patient with the government and promised that they would improve upon their conditions.
He said the NDC government is determined to improve the living conditions of Ghanaians especially the rural poor.



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