Leveraging Pension Power: How Ghanaian Trade Unions Can Turn Capital into Worker Rights

Globally, organised labour is navigating an unprecedented structural crisis. Membership densities continue to dwindle, undermined by expanding informal economies, shifts in employment relationships like casualisation, and subtle to aggressive corporate anti-union practices. In response, the international labour movement under the guidance of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has continuously urged affiliated unions to innovate, revise, and modernise their organising and recruitment strategies.

Still, while unions in Ghana search for new ways to recruit workers, they often miss one of their most cogent levers: the financial power of public sector workers’ pension funds.

The Financial Goliath Built on Workers’ Sweat

Under Ghana’s National Pensions Act, 2008 (Act 766), mandatory social security contributions equal 18.5% of an employee’s basic salary. While 13.5% goes to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) for Tier-1, 5% is directed into mandatory Tier-2 occupational pension schemes.

Over the past decade, these Tier-2 public sector schemes such as the Health Services Occupational Pension Scheme (HSOPS), the Ghana Education Service Occupational Pension Scheme (GESOPS), and the Public Sector Workers Employees' Pension Scheme (PSWEPS) have grown into financial powerhouses.

Take HSOPS as an example:

1. Asset Size: Its portfolio commands over GHS 7 billion in assets.
2. Banking Sector Influence: HSOPS holds a substantial 10% equity stake in First Atlantic Bank.
3. Capital Market Impact: Public sector Tier-2 funds provide vital liquidity to the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) and government securities.

In short, public sector workers are not just wage earners—they are major institutional investors fueling Ghana's corporate landscape.

The Paradox: Funding the Anti-Union Corporate Machine

Here lies the troubling contradiction: the very capital contributed by unionised public sector workers is frequently channelled into companies that actively suppress trade union rights.

Private commercial banks, service firms, real estate developers, and corporate entities benefiting from pension fund capital investments or credit lines frequently engage in anti-union behaviours:

1. Discouraging workers from joining union branches.
2. Delaying or refusing to sign Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs).
3. Targeting or punishing union leaders within their companies.

Organised labour is effectively financing the growth of corporate entities that actively dismantle worker solidarity. This financial asymmetry must end.

Capital Stewardship: A Strategic Organising Tool

To counter dwindling membership and adapt to modern corporate dynamics, Ghanaian trade unions must introduce Active Capital Stewardship into their core organising strategy:

TRADITIONAL ORGANISING VS. CAPITAL STEWARDSHIP

1. Trade Union Trustees Must Assert Control. Public sector pension boards are mandated to include union representation. Union trustees must move beyond passive governance and demand strict Labour-Related ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) Criteria for all fund investments.
2. Conditioning Access to Pension Capital: Public sector funds should establish clear worker-rights standards. Companies seeking equity investments or long-term loans from Tier-2 funds must demonstrate compliance with fundamental international labour standards, respect the right to organise, and maintain signed CBAs.
3. Active Proxy Voting and Direct Engagement: With significant holdings like HSOPS's 10% stake in First Atlantic Bank, union trustees must use their board presence and annual general meeting (AGM) voting power to audit labour relations inside investee entities.
4. "Repent or Deny": The Ultimate Financial Sanction. Anti-union companies benefiting from public sector funds should be given a choice: reform labour relations practices and recognise workers' rights to organise, or face divestment and denial of future worker capital.

Reimagining Recruitment for the Next 15 Years

With 15 years on the front lines of trade union organising, the lesson is clear: workplace organising alone cannot win against modern corporate resistance.

By aligning ITUC’s strategic organising imperatives with the economic leverage of Tier-2 pension funds, Ghanaian trade unions can reshape employer behaviour across the private sector. When anti-union companies realise that hostility toward labour jeopardises their access to billions of cedis in institutional capital, their stance on unionisation will change.

It is time for Ghana's trade union movement to bridge the gap between financial investment and worker organising. Our pension funds must work for us, not against us.

The author is a Principal Industrial Relations Officer at the Ashanti Regional Secretariat of the Health Services Workers Union. He is a Public Policy Analyst/Labour Analyst, Development Practitioner and Non-Executive Board Chairman of the Centre for Social Impact Studies (CeSIS).