The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has cast doubts over government’s assurance that it will not lay off workers with the implementation of the first phase of the IMF bailout program. According to the TUC, efforts by the government to streamline the public sector as part of measures to maintain fiscal discipline must be guided by the consensus reached at the Senchi forum and not the recommendations by the IMF. President John Dramani Mahama has assured that the government is not embarking on any retrenchment exercise as part of the IMF bailout conditions. According to him, what the government is currently engaged in is to rationalize the public sector to ensure that there is value for money.
The President maintains that the policy which has been enrolled within the education sector has seen the redeployment of about 13,000 teachers to deprived communities across the country. But speaking to Citi News at a forum to discuss the implications of the IMF bailout program on workers, Deputy General Secretary of the TUC, Dr. Yaw Baah stated that the assurances are not enough hence their call.
“Job rationalization can mean many things, it can mean redeployment. What it means is that if there is an area where government needs more staff they will transfer some people there,” he said. Dr. Baah further explained organised labour’s willingness to engage the government on the way forward to protect the welfare of labour, “It can also mean that they don’t need the numbers and if that is the case then we have a problem and you can be sure that we can resist but instead of waiting for such a thing to happen before we go on the streets, we rather want to engage government and see what we can do because two heads are better than one,” he stated. Meanwhile the IMF has approved about 117 million dollars to the government of Ghana. This followed a review of the Ghanaian economy which saw the country scoring a satisfactory performance. The Bretton Woods institution also commended government for maintaining a firm stance regarding its fiscal consolidation efforts to fully restore macroeconomic stability and mitigate financing risk.
Source – citifm
