LET'S CREATE AND SHARE (OCT 15, 2008)

PRESIDENT J. A. Kufuor has reminded key players in the Ghanaian economy that without a concerted effort at raising productivity, attempts at increasing salaries and wages will remain elusive.
In a speech read on his behalf at the Annual General Meeting of the Ghana Employers Association (GEA), the President cautioned that “unless we work hard to increase productivity to make our enterprises competitive in the global market and create the needed employment for our youth, increase in wages and salaries will elude us”.
Demands for increased salaries and wages are not new phenomena in the country. Such demands are always being made by all workers, including doctors, nurses, teachers, accountants and all manner of public sector employees. These annual demands have often been followed by industrial actions.
It is heart-warming that the President has served notice to hold ministers and their management teams accountable to the requirements set in the Public Service Customer Charters.
In the opinion of the DAILY GRAPHIC, there is the need for an attitudinal change on the part of all workers if the national target of increased productivity and better quality of life is to be achieved.
Our health workers who are receiving extra duty allowances should commit themselves more to their oaths to protect the sanctity of life. It is disheartening when some health workers turn their backs on patients who are in desperate need of treatment. Others use official hours working in private hospitals, while some go to the extent of pilfering essential drugs and medical supplies for private use, thereby depriving the sick of these items purchased from the taxpayer’s sweat.
Our teachers are not left out of this attitudinal problem. Most teachers prefer running private classes and collecting money from their pupils to devoting official hours to teach these children. Meanwhile, they are at the forefront of those who are constantly making demands for higher salaries and wages.
The story is no better in the civil and public services. Absenteeism, lateness, loafing and habitual drunkenness are the order of the day. These are tendencies that collectively draw our national aspirations backward and stifle national development.
By all means workers deserve better wages and salaries to be able to take care of their needs and those of their families. But the money to provide these will not come if we do not work hard and attend to our official work with commitment, diligence and dedication.
That is the challenge the DAILY GRAPHIC is throwing to all. It is only when we work hard that we will have the moral strength to make more demands for better conditions of service.