The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is hopeful the outcome of the tripartite committee concerning the minimum wage for 2021 will be welcoming for employees.
They anticipate a wholistic approach considering the devastating state the COVID-19 bestowed on cost of living globally. The national daily minimum wage is the least wage any employer in the country can pay a worker in a day.
Secretary-General of TUC when speaking to journalists in Accra after a meeting on the minimum wage indicated that, organised labour has received the assurance of the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Mr Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, that as soon as the technical committee set up by the National Tripartite Committee to produce a report on the minimum wage finishes its job in the next two weeks, a negotiation meeting would be convened to discuss the matter.
“The process is that we have to put in place a technical committee, which will consider all happenings within the economy – things like the inflation rate and the growth of the economy – and submit the report to us”, Dr Anthony Yaw Baah, Secretary-General of TUC intimated. Adding that, “It is a very complex process and we hope they will do a good job”.
He, however, pointed out that the report of the technical committee is “usually not taken as a final product”.
“It is also negotiated”, he noted.
In 2019, the National Tripartite Committee (NTC) announced an 11 per cent increase in the National Daily Minimum Wage (NDMW) from GH¢10.65 to GH¢11.82.
It was expected to have taken effect on 1 January 2020.
Announcing the increase in Accra at the time, Mr Baffour-Awuah also stated that the NTC had agreed that the new minimum wage should be tax-exempt.
By Adnan Adams Mohammed