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The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has pledged its unwavering support for the national unemployment insurance scheme announced by the finance minister last year, but wants it to be implemented swiftly.
The insurance scheme was part of the government’s efforts to tackle the impact of covid-19, as there had been many job losses due to the novel coronavirus.
Last year, the finance minister announced an insurance plan for employees at risk of job losses as part of the post-coronavirus recovery plan.
The government had projected around 7-10% unemployment in the country this year, a situation the union urged the government to quickly conclude the process for the scheme before the end of the first quarter, to start functioning.
The TUC also expects a pay rise for all public sector workers to be factored into the budget and economic policy. The budget is expected to be presented to parliament in March this year. The minimum wage in Ghana has hovered around $ 2 a day for the past decade.
“For obvious reasons, we have not been able to negotiate increases in the national daily minimum wage and the basic wage on the single column wage structure for public sector workers for 2021.”
Last year, the Department of Employment and Labor Relations said in a report that the country’s minimum wage will increase by 11 percent to GHc 11, 82 pesewas; a figure that the TUC expects to increase further in the next budget statement.
The TUC has already written to Employment and Labor Relations, asking the National Tripartite Committee meeting to begin negotiating the national minimum wage for this year in order to pave the way for negotiating the base wage.
“We anticipate that the negotiation of the national minimum wage and the base wage for 2021 will be concluded before the national budget is presented to parliament in March 2021 this year,” the TUC said.
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