Labour organisations have proposed that presidential candidates of the political parties running for office in the December elections should seal a covenant with workers to guarantee that they will deliver on their promises to workers if they came to power.
    
Mr Abraham Koomson, Secretary General of the Ghana Federation of Labour (GFL), initiated the proposal during an interaction between leaders of labour organisations and Mr John Dramani Mahama, Vice Presidential Candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
         
Mr. Koomson said workers will no more be fooled with empty promises without concrete guarantees, adding that "we need something to hold on to so that we can legitimately harass you to deliver."
    
He said workers are of the view that a covenant will bind the politicians to respond to the cries of the workers, especially on issues and concerns that will be covered under the covenant.
    
Mr James Ekow Amissah, Acting Executive Secretary of the Civil Servants Association (CSA), also noted that civil servants will no more settle for the generalisation of solutions for their specific problems, saying that politicians needed to commit to specific tailor-made solutions to the problems of civil servants.

Other representatives of various labour organisations took turns and raised issues about the restoration of end of service benefits (ESB), a return to the pre-Structural Adjust Programme PNDC era when government used to have a closer collaboration with workers at the negotiation table and the inclusion of a labour minister on the cabinet among other things.
    
Source: GNA
Posted: 28/11/08