Government and workers agree to reach consensus on development issues

News from Saturday, April 20, 2019

Source: Myjoyonline.com

2019-04-20

The government, the organized labor movement and the Ghana Employers' Association signed a memorandum of understanding on Thursday to promote a national consensus on development issues.

The A19 Council of Members has been tasked with strengthening and preserving the country's macroeconomic gains for rapid economic growth.

The partnership, among others, would provide a platform to badyze key development issues and advise the government, deliberate and contribute to policy discourse, including the national budget, medium-term plans and the Ghana Beyond Aid program.

As a result, this would provide a platform for creating a sense of cohesion, trust and self-management, while ensuring frank discussions on development issues.

At the signing ceremony and the launch of the Memorandum of Understanding in Accra, Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance, said that the ultimate goal of the agreement was to solicit ideas. and suggestions for creating jobs for youth, reducing poverty and promoting economic growth.

Ofori-Atta and Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, Minister of Employment and Labor Relations, signed on behalf of the Government while Mr. Anthony Yaw Baah, Secretary General of the Congress of Trade Unions and Mr. Daniel Acheampong, President of the Ghana Employers' Association, initialed for organized work.

The Minister of Finance has stated that social partnership as an approach to solving national problems has been widely used around the world and that it makes it possible to take advantage of collective bargaining for economic and social development national level, which allowed the social partners to influence socio-economic decision-making. manufacturing process.

Mr Ofori-Atta noted that the concept of social partnership was seen as an essential ingredient of Europe's economic and political transformation after the Second World War. He cited Germany, Austria, Scandinavia and Ireland as countries that used it to promote social cohesion.

"This would inculcate the culture of cooperation between workers, employers and the government to ensure industrial peace and maintain Ghana's international competitiveness to drive industrial transformation," said Ofori-Atta.

The minister said there is a strong partnership between the government, the organized labor movement and the Employers' Association in the framework of the National Tripartite Commission for Determining the Minimum Wage.

However, the new social partnership would formalize this commitment and broaden the scope of economic and social development beyond the narrow limits of minimum wage setting, which would lead to prosperity for all Ghanaians.

Dr. Yaw Baah of the Trades Union Congress and Mr. Acheampong of the Employers' Association took turns pledging their support for the success of the social partnership in order to consolidate macroeconomic gains and ensure rapid economic growth.