The 15 members Technical committee that were set up by the National Tripartite committee is expected to submit their report by Friday 14th of May 2021 per the two weeks duration given. This will have a way for all labour unions to table the Negotiations of the National minimum wage for 2021 so that a consensus can be reached between parties involved.
Most workers in Ghana have been hard-hit by the rising cost of living due to delays in the adjustment of workers’ salaries. This negotiation was supposed to complete in 2020 with its implementation and salary increments taken effect at the beginning of the year but 2021 base pay negotiations were intermittently interrupted by the pandemic.
Though this is not the first time base pay negotiations has been delayed in the country. A closer look at the past years’ negotiations has revealed that in 2016 the Negotiations were put on the round table and completed in the same year of the implementation.
Similarly in 2012, the base pay negotiations were tabled and completed in the same Year March 2012 with salary increments taking effect in the same April 2012 and the remaining three months’ salary increment paid in August that same year. Taking a cue from this year 2012, workers are anticipating whether when they complete this year’s base pay negotiations and there is an increment, the past five months salaries increment will be paid to the worker.
Looking at the rising cost of living, and the past years’ base pay percentages, workers are expecting a mean full percentages outcome for the 2021 base pay negotiations to help cushion them in this rising prices of goods and services.
