The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has identified low salaries and unsatisfactory working conditions as the main factors driving the surge in the migration of professionals from Ghana to seek greener pastures abroad.
The TUC’s Deputy Secretary General, Joshua Ansah, said in an interview with Citi News on the sidelines of a SSNIT, TUC stakeholders’ engagement with informal sector workers in the Eastern Region said the current economic situation and high inflation are making it difficult for many teachers, nurses, doctors, and other professionals to make ends meet.
“Low salaries and unsatisfactory conditions of work are making them leave the country,” Ansah said. “These days, the professionals are leaving more. Doctors, teachers, and nurses are all leaving because of the low wages and the uncomfortable conditions of service.”
Ansah said that the TUC is concerned about the trend of professional migration and is working with the government and employers to address the issue.
“It is the duty of the union, the government, and the employers themselves, for the tripartite to put their heads together to ensure that they come out with better conditions of services,” he said. “So that workers will be satisfied with whatever they take in this country, and they stay to perform for the development of this country.”
Ansah also said that a technical committee has been set up to look at global issues concerning minimum wage negotiations, which are currently ongoing with the government.
He assured workers of the resolve of the union leaders to champion their cause for better remuneration.
“It’s a genuine concern, for which we are also taking into consideration to see how best we can improve our salaries for workers so that they can pay a bigger premium to earn them a better pension. Salaries in general have been very low in this country. We have set up a technical committee that will look at the global issues concerning the minimum wage negotiations,” he stated.
