By: Nicholas Osei-Wusu
The Public Services Workers Union, PWSU has described as a fallacy claims by sections of the society including the political class suggesting that public sector agencies are unproductive and inefficient.
Instead, the public service remains the real fulcrum of national development only that the sector’s performance is being continually undermined through neglect or under resourcing by governments as well as politicization.
The General Secretary, Bernard Adjei therefore challenged the government to put public sector agencies to test with adequate investment for all to see the outcome.
He was addressing the 11th Quadrennial Delegates Conference of the PSWU in Kumasi
The Public Services Workers Union, PSWU is the umbrella body for labour unions of 71 of the public sector agencies and remains one of the key affiliates of the Ghana Trades Congress.
The 11th Quadrennial Delegates Congress in Kumasi brought together nearly 500 members as Delegates and Observers from all the regions.
They considered the Reports on the activities and finances of the Union in the last four years which included updates on the PSWU Mutual Health Insurance Scheme and the Critical Health Support Fund as well as updates on Members’ Tier Two pension contributions.
There were solidarity messages from both local and external labour unions including those from Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Zimbabwe.
The General Secretary of the PSWU, Brother Bernard Adjei, commended the GBC Divisional Union for standing up to some state agencies for taking a unilateral decision against workers’ emolument.
The General Secretary described as a fallacy claims by a section of politicians and the public that public sector institutions are unproductive and challenged succeeding governments to invest human and logistical resources of such agencies and see the outcome.
The General Secretary assured members of the Union’s unwavering stance against injustice and unfair labour practices in any form against workers.
“As it’s the nature of trade unions, we’ll fight injustice by every lawful means wherever it rears its head. And I want to use this opportunity to thank you all for supporting us and the workers of GBC to fight against the injustice of denying workers of conditions that had been agreed on in Collective Agreement”, he said.
Brother Adjei criticized politicization of recruitment into the public service in recent times as against the established criteria of competences and merit.
The Secretary General of the Ghana Trades Union Congress, TUC, Dr. Anthony Yaw Baah cautioned that labour movement will not support any political party that refuses to incorporate critical parts of the TUC’s ‘Workers Manifesto’ in its 2024 Campaign Manifesto.
He cautioned “what we seek to do is to use our Workers’ Manifesto to ensure that all what is going to benefit workers of this country find themselves of the political parties. And if you’re a political party and you don’t consider Workers’ Manifesto in your Manifesto, we’ll no cooperate with you, we cannot cooperate with you. This old system of running the country as if the country belongs to some few men must stop!”
The 11th Quadrennial Delegates Conference, which was on the theme: “Strengthening Public Sector Institutions; A Catalyst for Economic Development-The Role of the Union”, re-elected all the National Officers unopposed to manage the Union in the next four years.