Lateness, laziness and indiscipline cannot build prosperous Ghana – TUC tells workers

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) of Ghana, has advocated attitudinal change at workplaces to engender high productivity.

It says laziness, lateness and indiscipline at the work places do not promote the building of a prosperous country.

In an address by the Secretary General of the TUC, Dr. Yaw Baah which was read on his behalf Freda Stephanie Frimpong, Accra Regional Secretary of the TUC at the regional celebration of International Workers Day (May Day) in Accra, the TUC said “As we appeal to the President to end IMF programmes and lead us to take control of our natural resources, we owe it a duty to demonstrate that we can indeed manage these resources efficiently and effectively. Our success or failure will depend on how disciplined we are, as Ghanaian workers.

“We cannot build a prosperous country with lateness, laziness and indiscipline. We should all pledge our support for and work very hard to achieve the President’s noble vision of Ghana Beyond Aid, as soon as possible. I believe that with hard work, dedication to duty, and discipline we can move this country forward and achieve prosperity for all Ghanaians by 2030.”

The 2018 May Day celebrations were held under the theme, “Sustainable Development Goals and Decent Work: The Role of Social Partners”.

Meanwhile the TUC also made a number of demands on Government.

The TUC said it chose the theme purposely to highlight the importance of social partnership and what a strong partnership, characterized by
mutual trust and respect, can achieve.

It pointed the government to the lack of decent employment as the greatest challenge
facing Ghana today.

It said out of nearly 13 million Ghanaians who are eligible to work, just about 2 million (or 15 percent) have jobs that can be described relatively decent.

"About 11 million Ghanaians (or 85 percent) are working in very precarious conditions with no hope for the future."

The TUC said of the few Ghanaians who have some form of decent employment, they are constantly threatened with redundancy, describing it as "very disheartening".

"In 2015, we witnessed a mass redundancy exercise at AngloGold Ashanti Obuasi Mine which affected over 5000 mine workers. In March this year, there was another mass redundancy exercise
at Gold Fields Ghana Limited (Tarkwa Mine) which affected over 2000 permanent workers.

"When workers protested against the exercise at the Tarkwa Mine, armed police and military personnel were deployed to quell the protest. Some of the protestors suffered severe injuries while others were arrested and thrown into police cells with very appalling conditions."

The TUC said that action was not acceptable in a country which prides itself of 25 years of uninterrupted parliamentary democracy, asking "What is democracy if workers cannot protest against a mass redundancy exercise that only aims at profiting foreign shareholders and a few privileged Ghanaians?"