Pension funds exemption from DDE: We don’t trust government – GFL

The General Secretary of the Ghana Federation of Labour (GFL), Mr Abraham Koomson, has said Organised Labour cannot go to sleep with its eyes closed when dealing with this government.

According to him, Organised Labour does not trust this government one bit, especially in the matter of the implementation of the Domestic Debt Exchange programme.

"We have lost trust in this government, they told us no International Monetary Fund (IMF), and they finally went to the IMF," Mr Koomson charged.

"The president in a nationwide address told us there will be no haircut on investments in government bonds. What are seeing today? Hair cuts all over," he added.

The General Secretary of GFL said this in an interview with Accra-based Neat FM on Thursday, February 2, 2023.

He was of the view that this is the 17th time the country has gone to the IMF for a financial bailout but all this assistance did not come with DDE "so why DDE at this time?" he queried.

"You cannot keep a friend you don’t trust," he also said. "If you continue to keep a friend you don’t trust you will one day fall for his pranks."

He explained that Organised Labour decided to have the emergency meeting on February 1, 2023, to reiterate its stance contained in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with the government on December 22, 2022, for pension funds to be exempted from the DDE programme.

Meanwhile, Organised Labour has served notice it will fiercely resist attempts to go contrary to the agreement.

Organised Labour served this warning in a press release dated February 1, 2023, and jointly signed by the General Secretary of Trades Union Congress (TUC), Mr Isaac Bampo Addo, president of the Forum and Ken Koomson, Deputy Secretary General of Ghana Federation of Labour.

The release said: "Per the agreement between the Government of Ghana on Thursday, December 22, 2022, with the finance minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, Ignatius Baffour Awuah, Employment and Labour Relations executing same on behalf of Organized Labour, paragraph 1 as follows: Government has decided to grant exemption to all pension fund in the DDE programme.