UPPER EAST MINISTER CALLS FOR WAGE INCREMENT FOR LIPW

The Upper East Regional Minister, Hon. Stephen Yakubu, has called for increment in the wage rate of Labour Intensive Public Workers (LIPW) to improve their standard of living.

Currently, LIPW receive a daily wage rate of GH¢20 for six hours of work.

Hon. Yakubu said the amount paid to the workers could not cater for their upkeep, considering the cost of commodities in the market.

“GH¢ 20 is very small, what items can they spend with that amount to feed their children and themselves for six hours of work daily,” he said.

The Minister made the call at a day’s training programme for some key staff drawn from eleven Municipal and Districts Assemblies (MDAs).

The programme was on the theme: “Training on Environmental and Social Safeguards,” and was organized by the Ghana Productive Safety Net Project (GPSNJ) in Bolgatanga.

He appealed to the GPSNJ to effectively collaborate with the World Bank to increase the amount above the poverty line.

The Regional Minister said the GPSNJ should work in the interest of the vulnerable participants of the LIPW but not to continue doing the same thing which did not improve on the living standards of the down trodden.

“I think we should be fighting for our poor mothers and brothers or we continue to be the same way as we were sometimes back,” he said.

Hon. Yakubu urged the trainees to take the training seriously to enable them implement the concept at their respective Assemblies so that the participants of LIPW efforts would not be in vein.

The Bolgatanga Zonal Coordinating Director of GPSNJ, Mr. Michael Abanah, said the training was intended to educate staff of the Assembly on some safety environmental protection including the need to avoid open defecation, indiscriminate burning and cutting of trees, proper disposal of agro-chemical containers among others.

He said the participants of the LIPW provided unskilled labour in the construction of dam and road, Climate Change Mitigation Intensive (CCMI), transplanting of seedlings and watering of trees to protect the forest cover, among others.

Mr. Abanah assured the Regional Minister that his outfit would work to increase the daily wage rate of the workers.