Housing, low pensions remain key challenges for workers - Health services workers want govt intervention
The Deputy Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Mr Joshua Ansah, has expressed worry that decent and affordable housing and low pensions still remain critical challenges facing workers.
He said those challenges reduced the quality of living of workers, particularly after retirement and, therefore, required urgent attention from the government as the major stakeholder in addressing them.
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Anniversary
Addressing the Health Services Workers Union (HSWU) in Accra on Friday (September 6, 2019) at a symposium to climax the union’s week-long anniversary celebration, Mr Ansah expressed the hope that a closed-door meeting between the government and labour unions would produce some pragmatic solutions to the housing and pension challenges.
However, the major focus of the HSWU’s anniversary week celebration was how to advance efforts at getting good retirement packages for workers.
It was held on the theme: “Organising for better pensions from 2020 and beyond, a time to make a difference”.
Mr Ansah commended the Health Workers Union for their tremendous contributions to health care and national development.
Plan retirement
The Chairman for the occasion who is also the Chairman of the TUC, Rev. Richard Yeboah, said it was unfortunate that when people thought about the health sector, the only group of workers that was often mentioned were doctors and nurses.
He appealed to the public to recognise the work of all players in the health service delivery value chain, explaining that without all those workers the work of doctors and nurses would not be effective.
On the issue of pension, Rev. Yeboah said although very critical, workers did not take seriously their retirement and, therefore, did not plan towards it until they had retired.
He attributed the poor living conditions of pensioners partly to the failure of workers to plan their retirement ahead of time to ensure that they did not have to depend solely on what the public pension schemes offered.
Rev. Yeboah said the number of people on low pensions and living poor quality of lives was too alarming, and appealed to workers to plan retirement ahead of time, taking into consideration their health and shelter.
Poverty alleviation
The General Secretary of the HSWU, Mr Reynolds Ofosu Tenkorang, said pensions were one of the major tools for alleviating poverty, particularly among the elderly, and it was incumbent on both the government and workers to plan pensions effectively.
The Director of Planning and Research for the National Pensions Regulatory Authority, Mr Ernest Amartey-Vondee, sensitised the workers to the ongoing pension reforms which gave birth to the three-tier pension scheme.
He said the first batch of beneficiaries of the tier two pensions would be due for collection in January next year, and called on fund managers to adhere to existing arrangements to honour payments without creating inconveniences for beneficiaries.
He also called on all workers to take what could happen to them during retirement seriously so that they could plan adequately.
Mr Amartey-Vondee said workers should plan their pensions beyond the accumulation of funds, which he said, was crucial to include decent housing and health care, among others, to ensure better living conditions during retirement.
The National Chairman of the HSWU, Mr Zachariah Mohammed, said the advent of the week-long celebration nine years ago, was to offer a platform for the health workers to review their input into national development and map out the way forward for enhancing healthcare delivery to ensure better health outcomes.
He said it was also a period to also determine how to advocate and push for better conditions of service and pensions for workers.
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