The Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union (ICU) is advising the government to take a second look at the imposition of taxes on companies operating within the free zones enclave.
Their reason is that, since the earlier non-payment of taxes was used as a bait to attract investors into the country, this new directive will force them to turn their backs on the country, and are actually threatening to do so. Taxes, to the heterogeneous trade union organisation, are appreciated, since they are used to carry out development projects in the country. Their worry, however, is that the taxes are too excessive, and tend to choke the very people they are seeking to support.
To this end, they think the wealth of taxes affect the purchasing power of workers, and the people of Ghana at large. The brunt the people have to bear has compelled the ICU to call for the scraping of some taxes – overtime and SMS – while they advocate for a reduction in the Communication Service, Import and Excise taxes.
Mr. Solomon Kotei, General Secretary of the ICU, while addressing members after a demonstration to alert the government on the devastating conditions of Ghanaian workers, expressed the view that failure to attend to these taxes would mean lowering the standard of living of Ghanaians.
In a three-page petition presented to the Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE) of Tema, Mr. Isaac Ashai, three thematic areas of the state of the economy and its effects on Ghanaian workers, were the focus. They were identified as the performance of the cedi against major trading currencies, especially the dollar; fuel price and utility (electricity and water) tariff increases, and taxes and levies.
Mr. Kotey said the cedi-dollar disparity against other major trading currencies has caused “spiralling inflation in the country, impacting negatively on incomes of workers and the purchasing power of Ghanaians generally.” On fuel and utility tariff increases, he said it was obvious the government had broken ties with the social contract it had with the people of Ghana on fuel pricing through the Automatic Price Adjustment Formula.
The formula is meant to regulate fuel pricing, such that when the prices go down on the world market, same should apply in the country. But it is only when the prices are increased that the formula applies, Mr. Kotei posited. The random increases in utility tariffs, especially, when the availability of these services is not guaranteed, “are not only adversely affecting the cost of doing business in Ghana, but also crippling businesses and displacing social life and activities of the citizenry,” he added.
There have also been issues with negotiation of improved salaries and conditions of service of union members. The point is that, employers cite the energy crisis, popularly called ‘dum-so’, uncontrolled fuel price hikes, and random utility tariff increases, which have increased their overhead costs and also affected productivity, as reasons for their inability to meet the demands of their workers.
Mostly clad in red and black apparel, the demonstrating workers took to the streets yesterday, beginning from the premises of the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA), through the principal streets of Tema Community One to their converging point at Tera, where the Tema office of the ICU is housed. Drumming, singing, trumpeting and dancing accompanied the peaceful and incident-free demonstration that lasted about two hours.
The aggrieved workers displayed placards with all manner of inscriptions on them. Some of them read: “Ebola Economic Policies Killing Workers; Dumsor Ebi Too Much; Bad Economy; and Dead Goat Save Our Economy.” Others had, “The Impact of the New Tariffs Will Kill Us; High Tariff is Killing Industries; and Workers are Under Slavery, So See to It,” on them.
With the blessing of a huge police presence, the demonstrators, who numbered over a thousand, drawn from their various organisations, could not hide their frustrations. Leaders of the ICU from the various regions were not left out. Their resounding message was that should the government fail to adhere to their plights, the demonstrations would be replicated in the other regions of the country.
Simon Baba Alootey, a Regional Officer of the ICU in the Ashanti Region, said by the demonstration, they were sending a signal to the powers that be, that they (ICU) have the power to cause changes in the lives of the people they serve. His Volta Regional counterpart said the National Democratic Congress (NDC) could regard the region as their World Bank in terms of votes, but made it clear that matters of the economy were different altogether.
Bernice Donkor, who works with Golden Exotic Limited in Akuse, almost in tears, told The Chronicle that her conditions were even worse when compared with other workers in the country. She said she had not received any pay rise in the past three years, because her employers kept complaining that there was no money. Akosua Agyeman, an employee of Coca Cola Company, appealed to the government to intervene, because their conditions were no better.
The organisers of the event decried the entrenched positions taken by the heads of some companies that workers who took part in the demonstration would either be fired or suspended. They threatened to expose them should they do anything untoward, while describing them as thieves, criminals and shameless people. The Industrial and Commercial Workers Union is the single largest heterogeneous organisation in Ghana, with a membership of over 90,000.
The Union organises workers across a broad sector of the Ghanaian economy, including banks, non-financial institutions, mining & mining services, oil & gas, agriculture, insurance companies, hotel, catering and allied undertakings, retail and commercial undertakings, paper and printing industries, public boards and corporations, general industries, textile, garment, leather and fur, metal and automobile, tourism, and the informal sector.
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