Waive Taxes On Overtime Workers—ICU Gen. Secretary

The General Secretary of Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) Ghana, Mr. Solomon Kotei, has reminded President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo to consider and direct the tax authorities to waive the taxes on overtime; as it serve as a greater disincentive for workers to perform overtime work to meet the production target of their employers.

Those employers are fortunate to have survived the energy crisis that hit the nation for many years which threw a lot of business plans out of gear he claimed.

He said the energy crisis labeled "Dumsor" adversely affected businesses and industries causing an unprecedented mass layoffs of workers and total closures of some businesses and industries mostly in the private sector.

"Thus worsening the already precarious unemployment situation in the country and negatively afflicting condition of work as many businesses and industry were operating under capacity, resulting in unprofitability" he noted.

Mr. Kotei in an exclusive interview with ghananewsarena.com at the ICU Ghana's 10th Quadrennial Delegates Conference in the Ashanti Regional capital Kumasi, stated that the issue of precarious work in the form of labour casualization was high on the agenda of the leadership, which the ICU Ghana found it prudent to change the battleground of casualization and contractualisation and move it to the doorsteps of those unscrupulous employers.

The general secretary was emphatic that some employers have taken undue advantage of the permissibility of the law to contract workers to willfully collapse permanent employment and replace them with impunity with casual employment in a bid to reap supernormal profits to the detriment of Ghanaian worker.

According to him the ICU Ghana has over the years had demanded more decent work for its members and potential ones by campaigning against precarious work in favour of a work that is permanent, offering equal pay for equal work, work that gives opportunity for personal development and a work that gives social protection, social insurance and financial security for the Ghanaian worker.

Analysing the situation further, he stated that during the period of the year 2012 to 2016 workers and employers and many Ghanaians were burdened with high taxes in a form of petroleum tax, communication tax, financial services tax, excessive import duties, excessive corporate tax, high interest rate and among others.

These nuisance taxes he said made transacting business in Ghana became extremely costly compelling majority of Ghanaians to experience a very high cost of living.

He therefore commended the current government for taking some practical measures to reduce taxes in order to assuage the economic difficulties the ordinary Ghanaian is experiencing.

He then went on to reveal that the main cause of high cost of transacting business in Ghana was as a result of the extremely high interest rates charged by banks, adding that the current government's plan of aiding the private sector for accelerated economic growth has caused the Bank of Ghana to reduce its base rate significantly.

Concluding, he said the ICU Ghana believes that will make Bank credits more accessible to businesses and industries to speed up economic growth and development for mother Ghana.