Government is racing against time to get public sector unions from embarking on an indefinite strike on Friday.
The strike is to protest government’s handling of their tier-2 pension contributions.
The twelve unions set to strike tomorrow had warned two weeks ago that if the government fails to release their Tier 2 pension funds by September 29, 2017, they begin an industrial action.
The unions include the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), the Civil and Local Government Staff Association (CLOGSAG), and the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT).
Joy News is learning that a forum will be held among the agitating public sector workers today Thursday, September 28, 2017, to fine-tune details of the strike action.
The government intends to settle the workers’ Tier 2 pension with bonds, however, the workers disagree.
The unions want their funds released to them instead of the bonds as the bonds could take too long to mature.
Meanwhile, a technical committee has been set up to negotiate with the public sector unions.
That committee will also meet the workers Thursday, in what is expected to be a heated discourse since the government does not intend to pay penalty for defaulting in paying the Tier 2 pension funds.
The Tier 2 brouhaha has raged for a long time.
In 2014, the labour unions laid down their tools to make similar demands and were sued by the National Democratic Congress (NDC), government, to end the strike that resulted in a shutdown of most public institutions.
They challenged the Finance Ministry’s decision to use Pension Alliance Trust as a sole trustee of the second tier pension scheme for all employees on the government payroll.
Tier 2 is a mandatory contributory scheme with monthly contributions of 5% on the basic salary of all employees.
Tier 2 is a defined contribution scheme and contributions are fully tax-exempt and are privately managed by National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) licensed service providers.
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