Industrial And Commercial Workers Use May Day To Fight Government’s DDEP: “Don’t Violate Our Pensions”

• The largest workers union in Ghana, the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union, has warned the government against including pensions in the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme
• In a statement to mark this year's May Day celebration, the union said including pensions to the DDEP amounted to a violation of worker's pensions
• The finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta has been urging the Board of Trustees of pensions funds to allow for pension funds to be included in a revised DDEP

The Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) has spoken out against the government's decision to include pension funds in the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) in a message to mark this year's May Day.

The ICU is the largest union in Ghana. The ICU is celebrating this year's May Day under the theme: “Protecting Incomes and Pensions in an Era of Economic Crises: Our Responsibility."

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In a statement to mark the 2023 May Day, the ICU said the survival of workers, now and in the future, depends mainly on their present incomes and future pensions.

Inclusion of Pensions in revised DDEP

Not long ago, Minister for Finance Ken Ofori-Atta urged the Board of Trustees of pensions funds to allow for pension funds to be included in a revised DDEP.

The minister had previously given the assurance that pensions would not be included.

However, in April, the minister explained that the new DDEP proposal that included pensions would mitigate cash constraints of the government in the coming years, and promised to compensate the pension funds for the value of their current holdings.

ICU says pensions should not be violated

But in a release on May 1, 2023, the ICU said by including pensions in the DDEP, the finance ministry and the Nana Akufo-Addo administration were threatening the future of hardworking Ghanaian workers.

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“Pensions should not be violated under any circumstance, if the recent experience regarding the investment of pensioners in this country is anything to go by”, the ICU said.

Ofori-Atta insists scrapping DDEP is not an option

Meanwhile, YEN.com.gh has reported in a separate story that the finance minister has insisted that government will not scrap the Domestic Debt Exchange programme.

Ken Ofori-Atta said that was not an option on the table as there was no credible alternative to the programme.

His comment followed stiff opposition to the inclusion of individual bondholders in the programme.

Source: YEN.com.gh