Coalition supports workers’ demands for good pension
A Coalition of opposition political parties supports workers in their struggle to secure good pension benefits when they retire.
Advertisement
According to the coalition, the timing of the workers strike for better pensions is most appropriate, since a successful agitation will set them on a path of recovery from the current status quo of meagre retirement packages.
This is contained in a statement signed by the national youth organisers of four opposition political parties. They are Mr Sammy Awuku of the New Patriotic Party (NPP); Mr Abu Ramadan of the People’s National Convention (PNC); Mr Kadir Rauf of the Convention People’s Party (CPP); and Mr Divine Nkrumah of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP).
Workers union
Public sector workers unions and associations are currently on an indefinite strike in protest against the poor handling and management of workers’ contributions under the second tier of the pension scheme by the government.
The government has, in response, sued 12 labour unions over their strike to protest against government decision to manage their second tier pension funds.
The workers argue that the management of their funds by the government is in contravention of the pension law. However, the government is praying the court that the indefinite strike embarked on by public sector workers is illegal and that they should go back to work.
But in the view of the coalition, “Our support of workers is even more imperative as youth leaders because we also cannot afford to mortgage the future of the teeming young people who, for the next three decades of their lives, will be making compulsory contributions in anticipation of an enjoyable retirement’’.
Coalition’s assurance
The coalition has therefore assured all workers that it is solidly behind them in their “legitimate struggle to secure pension benefits,” stating that, “this is in order to protect workers’ future against hardships and all vulnerabilities associated with inadequate pension benefits.”
Other Trending Stories
According to the coalition, the National Pensions Act 2008 (Act 766) clearly describes the second tier pension scheme as a mandatory fully funded and privately managed occupational pension scheme.
“Thus, we members of this coalition regard the seeming interference by the government as not only undermining the spirit of the pensions Act, but also marks a clear breach of the Act and should, therefore, not be countenanced in the slightest sense by Ghanaians,’’ it explained.
The coalition stated that the workers’ action had the potential to reverse the trend of government dipping its long arm in pension funds and eventually misappropriating it.
“Over the last few years, the NDC government has presided over the sale of valuable and profitable state assets like the Trust Hospital, the Trust Bank and the Merchant Bank, all without recourse to the interest of the Ghanaian worker whose contributions were used in building these valuable assets,” the coalition declared.
It said while workers pressed on for what was legitimately due them, the coalition wanted to find out why the government was intransigent on the appointment of Pension Alliance Trust as trustees of the fund under the second tier scheme when it was obvious it marked a clear breach of the Pensions Act, which urges the employer and employee to come together and agree on a trustee.
The coalition also wanted to know exactly how much SSNIT had collected under the tier two scheme and how much interest had accrued on the principal collected so far?
Based on this evidence, the coalition is standing shoulder to shoulder with the already overburdened and overtaxed workers of this country as they legitimately fight for the future generation of this country.