Government to team up with organised labour, employers on wage bill negotiations

Employment and Labour Relations Minister Haruna Iddrisu

Government is set to team up with organized labour and employers to ensure a manageable wage bill as negotiations for 2015 minimum wage begins.

Workers who depend largely on the minimum wage for a decent living can expect an upward review when negotiations end later this month.

This is because the Tripartite Committee made up of government, labour unions and employers have begun negotiations for a review of the wage which currently stands at 6 Ghana Cedis, among other issues.

Employment and Labour Relations Minister Haruna Iddrisu told Joy Business Government is collaborating with organized labour to ensure whatever is agreed upon is manageable for the wage bill.

“Negotiations have begun in earnest on the determination of the minimum wage for 2015 and the base pay for 2015 and related issues on the single spine salary structure.”

The minister said he expects that the negotiations will be conducted in good faith for both government and labour to work in a manner that will contain the wage bill and its impact on the country’s fiscal challenges.

He said negotiators should however be mindful of the constraint of the budget to ensure that whatever is agreed on will not put a burden on the country.

He hopes the negotiations will be concluded in good time to ensure that workers can be paid their January salaries using the new rate.

“My expectation is for us to conclude negotiations on the base pay and minimum wage before the end of January for us to be able to pay January salaries within the agreed and approved wage.”

Source: myjoyonline.com