Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Dr Anthony Yaw Baah, has revealed that organised Labour has served notice that it will consider the “more superior” Domestic Debt Exchange Programme proposed by government.

According to him, the new offer presented seems “very clear” although it will need more information to take a decision on it. He insisted that the session, though cordial, had very intricate details to be further looked into by Labour’s team of experts.

“They are trying to present something which is superior to what we rejected and it has very very technical details that I cannot explain. That is why we have put together our technical team to look at it for us… We thanked them and we assured them that we will consider the offer. So, we are working on it but we need further information and that further information has to do with ‘Exchange Memorandum’ which was not presented.”
Dr Anthony Yaw Baah

Dr Baah stated that the government explained that the previous one which was rejected by Organised Labour has been reviewed and the acceptance of the new one with new offers for principals and interests would enable the country return to the bond market.

He explained that the new offer is more understandable but “for now the decision has not been made whether we are going to [consider] our pension funds to be part in the new deal or take the offer or not”.

“We need more information about it.”
Dr Anthony Yaw Baah

Earlier in May, the Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) cautioned government not to go against its promise to not include pensioners in the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDE). He noted that it is the responsibility of the Union to protect members’ pension funds from the DDE programme and that is its main priority.

Exclusion of pensioners from DDEP

The Secretary General announced that the President has also assured the Union to pay the delayed lump sum to eligible pensioners who are yet to receive their top-ups.

Prior to this, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) expressed the need for government to exempt its members’ pension funds from the debt exchange programme. It indicated that the programme will negatively affect the security of their retirement income.

Dr Baah stated that pension of members were already low and government should have done everything possible to protect the “small pension” members of TUC. However, he revealed that the government is introducing a programme inspired by the International Monetary Fund to cut further pension income.

In light of this, Dr Baah expressed that the Trades Union Congress and all its affiliates decided that the pension funds of their members will not be part of the domestic debt exchange programme.

Dr. Anthony Yaw Baah further stated that, the Union has written to the Minister of Finance, demanding that all pension funds invested in government bonds should be removed from the domestic exchange programme.

This came after organised Labour rejected the inclusion of pension funds in the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme.

Similarly, it will be recalled that on April 20, 2023, Organised Labour met on the new offer after reports circulated that the Ministry of Finance had written to the Board of Trustees of Pension Funds for participation in the new debt restructuring programme.

This followed a presentation made to Labour by government led by the Ministry of Finance, represented by the Minister of State, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, and in the presence of the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffour Awuah.