Promote Peace And Tranquility - TUC Urges Workers

The Secretary-General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Kofi Asamoah, has urged Ghanaian workers to promote peace and tranquillity in the country in the run-up to the December polls. He said workers had the responsibility to ensure peace in the country, in spite of the unnecessary tension that had been generated by some individuals in recent times. He noted that the TUC had a mandate to ensure that workers� rights and aspirations were promoted to generate maximum output, adding that the union�s contribution to national development was to encourage its members to promote peace to develop the nation. Mr Asamoah was speaking at a stakeholders� meeting of the Bolgatanga District Council of Labour. The meeting was to provide an avenue for the TUC to interact with and solicit the concerns of workers and educate them on the need to ensure peace in the country. Mr Asamoah noted that almost everything in the country had been reduced to partisan politics, making it difficult for issues bordering on national interest to be discussed and solutions found. He said if caution was not taken, the country could be put into a state of pandemonium as a result of the use of intemperate language by some individuals across the political divide, adding, �It is only when peace prevails that we can work as a working people and promote productivity for the country.� He called on Ghanaians to be tolerant and live peacefully, devoid of the use of vulgar language that could eventually incite unwarranted passion. He called on all qualified persons to register in the biometric voters registration exercise as a first step towards exercising their constitutional right to vote during elections and refrain from registration malpractice. He stated that under the banner of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), all member states were expected to indulge in decent work agenda. That, Mr Asamoah said, had four pillars, including job creation by all member countries, ensuring the enforcement and protection of workers� rights, social protection and social dialogue. He noted that every year about 250,000 potential workers were unable to find jobs in Ghana's labour market, adding that the public sector, which used to provide adequate jobs for the teeming unemployed graduates in the country, was no more. �The government has the responsibility to intervene in job creation on a mass scale, otherwise the unemployment situation will lead to great danger and undermine the democratic dispensation of the country,� he pointed out. On the Single Spine Salary Structure, Mr Asamoah said the union had, since 2006, been involved in the salary structure of its members and said the pay policy sought to motivate and reform public service workers to improve service delivery and productivity. The Upper East Regional Secretary of the TUC, Mr Augustine Adongo Apambila, said he programme would be replicated in other districts in the region to help promote peace during this year�s elections.