C/R workers celebrate May Day

May 01, 2011
Cape Coast, May 1, GNA - About 500 workers from various agencies and departments in the Central Region, on Sunday converged at the Jubilee Park in Cape Coast to celebrate this year's May Day.

This year's celebration was under the theme: "Decent work for sustainable economic development".

The Central Regional Minister, Mrs. Ama Benyiwa-Doe, appealed to the workers to work harder since it is only when productivity increases that employers would be in a better position to respond positively to workers' demands for better working conditions.

She said that Government was conscious of the fact that human resource development, good governance, sound macro-economic policies and programmes constituted the foundation for decent work to enable the economy develop on sustainable basis.

Mrs. Benyiwa-Doe said, consequently, Government was rolling out employee-friendly policies such as the Single Spine Pay Policy and appealed to the Civil and Local Government Associations of Ghana as well as other unionized groups to co-operate with the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission to iron out any differences for the smooth implementation of the policy.

She congratulated all the workers, especially the award winners, and asked others to work harder to enable them also win awards in the future.

Mr. Anthony Egyir Aikins, the Municipal Chief Executive of Cape Coast, noted that the current global trend of unemployment has weakened the strength of organized labour.

He called on leaders of the various trade unions to adopt a visionary attitude in the management of unions.

Mr Aikins praised workers for their dedication to duty and encouraged members of the various unions to respect divergent views.

Mr. Martin Kofi Boateng, Acting Regional Secretary of the Ghana Trades Union Congress, expressed concern about the unfair treatment of workers by some organizations.

He called on employers to invest in the training of their workers to strengthen their capacity.

Mr Aikins also called for the resourcing of factories and inspectorate departments for effective monitoring of work.

Eighteen members of the various unions were awarded.

GNA