23rd October, 2014

The Daily Graphic, Ghanaian Times and the Today Newspaper discuss the indefinite strike by organised labour over government's failure to take its hands off the second tier of the pension scheme. 

The Graphic is of the view that the new pension reforms were introduced to bring sanity into the system. It says it finds it a matter of grave concern that instead of discussing how the scheme will address the weaknesses inherent in the SSNIT Scheme, the country is confronted by strikes relating to the management of the scheme. The paper therefore calls for cool heads to prevail so that the parties involved can work to bring the strike to a speedy end. It believes it is better to jaw-jaw than to war-war, as no winner will emerge from the present stalemate. 

The Ghanaian Times says it is unfortunate in our part of the world that issues concerning the welfare of workers always end up in strikes. The paper has called on the National Labour Commission to resolve the issue quickly. It acknowledged government's efforts and pleads that all parties would sit and resolve the issue to save the country from suffering dislocations and upheavals both politically and economically. 

The Today Newspaper says it is rather unfortunate that at this trying moment that every Ghanaian is needed to contribute his/her quota to the development of the country, public sector workers have embarked on an indefinite strike. It is also unfortunate for the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, to describe the strike as illegal. The Today Newspaper says it looks forward to the strike being resolved as early as practicable to enable the workers to go back to work. The paper believes this is not the time for parties to take entrenched positions but rather explore ways of going to the negotiating table to address the matter. 

GBC