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Ignatius Baffour Awuah - Employment and Labour Relations Minister
Ignatius Baffour Awuah - Employment and Labour Relations Minister

Government, Forum dialogue over Tier 2 Pension

The Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations has begun engagements with members of the Forum for Public Sector Registered Pension Scheme to address concerns over their tier two pension deductions.

There was some level of consensus between the Forum and the government during the first of such engagements which took place in Accra last Wednesday.

The meeting was attended by representatives from the ministries of Finance, Employment and Labour Relations and Justice on the side of the government, while the other side comprised the Forum, the regulator and the trustees of the various schemes.

In an interview, the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Mr Ignatius Baffour Awuah said it was his expectation that by September 29, the parties involved would have made headway in resolving the issues raised by the Forum.

“We have heard them, and we are ready to sit down with them and engage them. Indeed, the process of the engagement has started and the first meeting was successful, and I want to believe that by September 29, we would have made headway,” he told the Daily Graphic.

The Forum

The Forum, which is made up of unions and associations, comprises the Health Services Workers Union, the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association, the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), the Ghana Physician Assistants Association and the Ghana Hospital Pharmacists Association.

The rest are the Ghana Association of Certified Registered Anesthetists, the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the Teachers and Educational Workers’ Union (TEWU) of Ghana, the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), the Coalition of Concerned Teachers-Ghana, Civil and Local Government Staff Association (CLOGSAG) and the Judicial Service Staff Association of Ghana (JUSSAG).

Ultimatum

On Thursday, September 14, this year, the Forum gave the government up to September 29, this year to transfer funds belonging to its

member unions and associations from the Temporary Pension Fund Account (TPFA) with the Bank of Ghana (BoG) into the accounts of the four fund managers responsible for the public sector occupational pension scheme.

It said anything short of that demand would compel the Forum to declare an indefinite strike beginning from September 29, 2017.

But Mr Awuah said the government had shown its commitment to the issues raised and expressed his belief that “by September 29, we would make huge progress.”

He said the engagements were in series and that the parties involved had met once and, “you don’t expect that one day, we will be able to finish with all the issues. The engagement is continuous.”

Background

At a press conference on Thursday, September 14, the Chairman of the Forum, Dr Isaac Bampoe Addo said one-and- a-half years had gone by since the judgement and transfer of an accumulated five per cent monthly deductions from its members for the tier two pension lodged with the BoG.

He said in July 2017, the Forum issued a press statement expressing the concerns of its members, but “due to deafening silence from the government regarding the issues raised, lawyers for the Forum were compelled in August 2017 to write to the ministers of Finance, Employment and Labour Relations and the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice seeking answers”.

He said the letter sought to draw attention to the current challenges confronting the implementation of the tier two pension scheme for the public services but the issues had still not been addressed.

Dr Addo said under the defined contribution scheme, the contributor’s benefits was at risk depending on earnings from investments, therefore, any delay in releasing funds belonging to the Forum would not augar well for retirees.

Writer’s Email: [email protected]

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