The Publicity Coordinator of the 2022 May Day Committee, Christian Yaw Adinkra, has admonished government to deal with labor issues fairly in the country.

According to Christian Adinkra, government must seek to address the inequalities in the public sector which obviously isn’t ideal.

“Labor issues must be dealt with fair and square. Where the fair is missing, the square cannot add up because we are all employed and the salary inequalities are so huge. I think that we are shooting ourselves in the foot.”
Christian Yaw Adinkra

The Publicity Coordinator intimated that the public workers in Ghana now are dissatisfied than ever with most of them peeved and unhappy. He indicated that the sector is at a crescendo where, if care is not taken, unions will become militants.

“I’m not saying that we the labor unions should become a militant nomenclature to fight government, not at all. But if these issues continue, such that a CEO can get an GHS80,000 home enhancement loan which a teacher in Ghana cannot get for over a period of his working life and we think this is fair? Workers are getting bitter day by day.”
Christian Yaw Adinkra

Inequalities affecting workers

Mr. Adinkra insinuated that it looks like the disparities and inequalities in the public sector is affecting workers. According to him, the salary and the inflation rate doesn’t correspond.

“If we are in an era where inflation is becoming like a daily occurrence and the salary of the [average] worker of Ghana has been increased by 4-7 percent and you have a 30 percent increment for the CEOs, Ministers and all these people; are we being fair to ourselves?”
Christian Yaw Adinkra

According to the May Day Publicity Coordinator, if the welfare of the worker becomes a warfare between the unions and government, productivity suffers and suffocates and the workers don’t live long. “You realize that even with pension, before the worker goes home, he is weak, we [also] frustrate him with access to his benefits and the person dies before the benefit comes.”

“The worker today is not safe, the worker today is not satisfactorily happy and the conditions are not healthy. So, you have our teachers more depressed than ever because when we hear stories of CEOs taking that huge [amount] but giving us a loss of GHS5.3 billion within 2020 alone, you’re telling the worker that you are unserious.”
Christian Yaw Adinkra

Touching on the May Day Celebration, he revealed that the theme for this year is dubbed: “Protecting Jobs and Income In an Era of COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond”. The Publicity Coordinator intimated that theme cannot be achieved if the workers don’t feel their jobs are protected.

Mr. Adinkra stated that if there are such inequalities and the small increment percentage in salaries which is not the case of the CEOs, he doesn’t understand whichever explanation government wants to use to describe the current economic situation because they have funds for such allowances for CEOs.

“It looks like with labor welfare, the one who is managing the economy seems to hate. Welfare or labor welfare doesn’t concern the one who gives it and I do not know why.”

Mr. Adinkra cautioned that if a 20 percent increment in salaries is not given to public sector workers this year, “as for the strike, it will be in perpetuity”. He intimated that this is the decision because an increment in the salary must commensurate with the inflation rate at hand.