Private Entrepreneurs Urged To Pay Workers Adequately

Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, has called on employers to give approved salaries and wages to their workers to ensure maximum productivity.

He said employers who gave their workers remunerations below the national minimum wage violated the country's labour laws amounting to an abuse of the employees' rights.

Mr Baah-Wiredu was interacting with contractors and their workers after he had inspected a number of road and other development projects in the Asante-Akim North District in the Ashanti Region at the weekend.

Mr Baah-Wiredu, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, said the current approved minimum wage of Gh¢ 2.2, the implementation of which took effect from March 1, must be adhered to by all employers, public or private since flouting it was punishable by law.

He advised the youth to aspire for higher academic laurels and skills training to enable them meet the challenges of the competitive global labour and job market.

He said youths who did not take their academic and skill training programmes serious would be faced with unemployment problems thereby aggravating the unemployment problems of the country.

This, Mr Baah-Wiredu said, would not augur well for the achievement of the country's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The Communities he visited included Woraponso, Kwaokrom, Odumase and Patriensa.