The spate of labour agitations in the country is not peculiar to our times. Strikes are a common phenomena when people are dissatisfied with the goings on in society, including the rising cost of living.
At other times, strikes have been used to get an unpopular government out of the way.
When that happens, workers resort to the last weapon in negotiations, and that is to declare industrial action to draw attention to their predicament. There have been occasions when workers have resorted to industrial action without necessarily exhausting the grievance procedure.
Strikes are very disruptive. Besides the disruption caused to an organisation, strikes also create problems for the stakeholders’ value. Shares of companies have tumbled on the stock exchange because of industrial actions.
That is why all the interest groups in an organisation must guard against labour agitations that culminate in the laying down of working tools.
Therefore, organised labour stirred controversy when it declared November 18, this year, as a national strike day to back its demands on the government and the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) to reduce utility tariffs.
The PURC increased water and electricity tariffs by 78.9 per cent and 52 per cent respectively, to take effect on October 1, 2013.
Various stakeholder discussions have been held over utility tariffs and one stakeholder engagement involved the government, the utility companies, the PURC and captains of business and industry.
No matter what anybody will say, the Daily Graphic thinks the gesture by the government over the weekend to reduce power tariff by 25 per cent is commendable, especially when we were told that the government would have to pay over GH¢400 million subsidy to the utility companies to maintain a steady supply of energy.
The last upward adjustment was really a killer, as it engendered protests from people from all walks of life.
The utility companies have always argued for utility adjustments to improve their services but they have never delivered to meet customer expectations.
It is early days yet since the utility tariff adjustments were announced, but we expect that the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) will work hard to end the frequent disruptions.
The Daily Graphic appeals to the government to honour its obligations to the utility companies so that the promised subsidies do not act as a bottleneck in their operations.
We are happy that the government has responded to the request from organised labour to reduce the tariffs.
Going forward, the Daily Graphic thinks that the government should also engage all the stakeholders in constant dialogue as a means of resolving the challenges in the economy.
