The Construction and Wood Workers Union (CWWU) has called on government to pay arrears to contractors without delay.
Government currently owes contractors to the tune of over GHC12 billion which the contractors have demanded payment.
General Secretary of the Union, Richard Asamoah, spoke exclusively with our labour correspondent, Daniel Opoku in Accra.
“Let’s take Construction Workers Union where I belong to, normally workers are being told that we have not been paid. Our work done has not been paid for, the employer also feels bad to pay workers and where is he going to get money to pay?”
“Because he must have gone for loans from some banks and being promised without payment the monies that he has gone for yields interest it affects the contractor as well as the worker.”
“So, in the end there is a lot of hullabaloo in the system, strikes all over. So, if the government is able to pay the contractors on time, make sure that whatever is due them is given to them, there will be peace in the industry, and I am telling you is going to go well for us,” he stated.
The General Secretary lauded the efforts of the leadership of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) to set up a labour bank.
“Again, we shouldn’t forget about the labour bank the TUC is talking about. If we are able to get a labour bank for the TUC, workers of Ghana and organised labour, I am telling you we are going to go far.”
“…at times workers go in for loan from the financial institutions and they are being delayed. For my sector, we have even applied for loan and for eleven months they are not giving to us, but when the labour bank being controlled by TUC is in place, workers can come in for loan. Whatever they need they will be able to get it from the labour bank and it will also help,” he noted.
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By Daniel Opoku
