By Patrick Ofoe Nudzi, GNA
Accra, Sept. 11, GNA – The Health Services Workers’ Union (HSWU) of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Ghana, has launched activities to commemorate its 82nd Anniversary with a week-long programme focused on workers’ welfare, pensions, and trade union solidarity.
Speaking at a press briefing in Accra, Mr Franklin Owusu Ansah, General Secretary of the HSWU, said the anniversary activities were designed to celebrate the Union’s achievements over the years while positioning it to meet future challenges.
Mr Ansah noted that anniversary activities were also being organised across the regions, including clean-up exercises and educational programmes on pensions and the HSWU Fund.
Reflecting on the Union’s history, he said the HSWU had, for the past 82 years, remained steadfast in protecting the rights and welfare of workers, particularly those in Ghana’s health sector.
The General Secretary said the Union, established during the colonial era around 1944, had overcome numerous challenges and continued to expand its membership and influence.
The HSWU could currently boast of about 42,000 members drawn from approximately 110 job categories across the country, he said.
It organised workers in both the public and private sectors, including clinical and non-clinical staff, allied health professionals, ancillary and support personnel, as well as administrative workers.
Mr Ansah identified low wages as a major challenge confronting many workers, noting that some public health workers earned less than GH¢500 a month.
He appealed to employers, including the Government, to ensure that such workers were properly employed and paid living wages, stressing that low earnings often translated into inadequate retirement benefits.
“If you are working and your wages are low, your retirement income will be very low, and you will live poor. We don’t want to retire into problems. We want to retire and enjoy our retirement,” he added.
Mr Ansah further urged workers, particularly those in the private sector, to join trade unions to strengthen collective efforts towards securing better wages and improved conditions of service.
He emphasised that Ghana’s labour laws guaranteed every worker the right to belong to a trade union and encouraged workers to take advantage of that protection.
GNA
Edited by Agnes Boye-Doe
By Patrick Ofoe Nudzi
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