Trade Union Congress (TUC), has sensitised people in the informal sector to hook onto the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) to enable social inclusiveness and protection among economy workers.
The sensitization occurred in Accra at the third Union of Informal Workers’ Association (UNIWA) quadrennia delegates conference and was on the me: ‘Inclusive Social Protection for Informal Economy Workers in Ghana.’
The sensitisation was to protect, sustain, and promote the common interest of informal workers, as well as strengthening their bargaining power to dialogue with the government and employers.
Dr Anthony Yaw Baah, General Secretary of the TUC said it aimed at bringing all informal sector workforce together to educate them on the need to form and register vibrant groups to promote their interest.
He said the Congress initiated a People Pension Trust (PPT) for the informal working sector and advised the trade associations to facilitate for their individual members to register and contribute to guarantee a financial security for themselves on retirement from active work.
‘All along, TUC was seen as union for formal workers, today is the beginning of another era where we want all Ghanaians to see TUC that is not for workers in the formal sector alone but informal people as well,’ he said.
He explained that this would enable extend state services to the informal sector and formalise businesses for individual and country development.
However, out of the 1.9 million active SSNIT contributors, only 600,000 self-employed persons are hooked on pension schemes, depicting that the private sectors are more active on SSNIT than public sector.
Source: Ghana News Agency