PRESIDENT Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in his speech on International Workers’ Day, popularly known as May Day, last Monday admonished workers in the country to put an end to negative practices at the workplaces.
ACCORDING to him, these bad practices negatively affect productivity and national development, and we agree with him in toto.
MINDSET and ideologies like “government’s work is not my father’s work” or “government’s work is dragged but not carried,” are mantras especially within institutions within the public sector.
THE fact is that most public servants’ attitudes towards work are unpardonable since most public offices are saddled with laziness, lateness and pilfering.
WHAT is more, practices like staking lotto, sleeping, gossiping during work hours, lateness and absenteeism are repulsive and must be prohibited immediately.
MANAGERS and supervisors in various public institutions also have the responsibility of monitoring their employees.
THEY must keep an eagle eye on their subordinates, which includes regulating their behaviours, to ensure that their workers work in the prescribed way.
IN the same vein managers must publicly be seen awarding hardworking employees and punishing recalcitrant employees by fines, suspensions and outright dismissals.
THIS brings into sharp focus the need to resuscitate Complaint Desks at public institutions where customers can complain about poor services rendered to them by public servants, and steps taken to ensure that such unfortunate mistakes never occur again.
BUT, Today asks: what excuse does the President have to the terrible conditions most workers are forced to live under?
TODAY asks again: what are we celebrating if workers are suffering?
IT is no surprise that many public servants today are living in abject poverty with several of them preferring to work in the private sector.
TEACHERS, for instance, those who teach in public schools, are neglected once they are posted away from the national capital—Accra. They are exposed to abject poverty and are not even given better conditions of service.
THEIR salaries take months to meet them and they are forced to stay at home since they cannot afford to go to school every day to teach.
FURTHERMORE, remuneration in the public sector is low, while cost and standard of living keep climbing up. This, most often, brings untold hardships on public servants who have to rely on their monthly meagre salaries.
IT must also be pointed out that many a public servants work haphazardly because they are not better remunerated.
EMPLOYEES will be motivated in a conducive atmosphere. An atmosphere not riddled with lack of security of job and poor conditions of service. It is in this respect that the paper believes that allegiance is like two sides of a coin.
THE government must improve the lot of workers by offering better remuneration, bonuses, and awards to boost the morale of its employees and the employees must in turn give out their very best.
IN this manner Ghana will become the ultimate winner as workers will work hard to make this country a prosperous one which benefits will inure to all of us.
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