Government Issues Official Statement On On-going Strike Action By Public Sector Workers

The Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, Hon. Haruna Iddrisu, has called on public sector workers to end their strike action and use dialogue with government to resolve the impasse on the management of the 2nd Tier Pension Scheme.
 
Addressing the media in Accra on Friday, Mr Iddrisu disclosed that government had accepted to review the National Pension Act to deal with past credit and age.

He said government was also willing and ready to transfer money from the Temporal Pension Fund Account (TPFA) and to disburse it as soon as the structure and mechanisms for disbursement were put in place.

He gave the assurance that all payments into the TPFA was in the safe custody of the Bank of Ghana and that no monies had as yet been disbursed from that account as claimed by some interest groups.
Mr Iddrisu denied reports that monies had been paid from TPFA to the Pension Alliance Trust, adding, however, that government was willing to review the role of the Pension Alliance Trust as Trustees, in relation to the management of the 2nd  Tier Pension Scheme.

He said government was concerned about the associated future risks in the event of mismanagement or mis-investment of pension funds by any player, hence the need for government to continue to protect the principles of the 2nd Tier Pension Scheme which required that funds invested under this tier to be paid in cumulative value and accrued interest.

Government, he said, therefore, took full responsibility for the management and security of all public sector pension funds, and that government would only disburse the monies to accredited schemes as agreed by government and workers.

Mr Iddrisu said government was the best and most reliable guarantor of all social security and pension benefits and would, accordingly, work, in partnership with public sector workers, to establish a vehicle to manage the 2nd Tier Pension Fund.

He made an undertaking that government would pay all workers entitled to pension benefits as they retired in January 2015.

He was, however, emphatic that government would not accept the operation of the 2nd Tier Pension Scheme registered by the four labour unions or associations to operate in its current form, adding that government was willing to work and negotiate with the unions to improve it in the best interest of all parties and, particularly, to safeguard the funds against any unforeseen future risk.

Meanwhile, according to the Employment and Labour Relations Minister, government, through the Attorney-General, intended to proceed to court to seek proper interpretation as well as clarifications on aspects of  the provisions of the Pension Act and the 2nd Tier Pension Scheme, respectively.

In addition, he said, the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations  had lodged a formal complaint with the National Labour Commission against the Public Sector Workers  for embarking on an illegal strike action, having not notified the Ministry, as an employer, as required by the Labour Act, 2008 (Act 651), before embarking on the strike action.

ISD