Organised labour has used Ghana’s 2026 May Day celebration to lay out a detailed set of demands for President John Dramani Mahama’s government, warning that improving macroeconomic numbers mean little to workers still struggling with low wages, inadequate pensions, and scarce jobs.
Addressing thousands of workers from 32 affiliate unions at the national parade in Koforidua on Friday, May 1, Trades Union Congress (TUC) Secretary-General Joshua Ansah commended the government for renewed engagement with labour but said the country was approaching a critical threshold on employment, particularly among young people.
Ansah cited official figures showing overall unemployment at 13 percent, youth unemployment at 34 percent, and approximately 80 percent of employed Ghanaians working in the informal sector with little legal protection. He noted that more than 500,000 young people had applied for a limited number of security service positions, which he described as a measure of how dire the situation had become.
On wages, Ansah said the current daily minimum wage of GH¢21.78 and public sector minimum salaries of roughly $75 a month were insufficient to cover food, rent, transport, healthcare, utilities, and education. He called for an income policy built around a living wage rather than a minimum wage floor.
Pension inequality drew sharp criticism. Ansah said some retirees collected as little as GH¢400 a month while others received more than GH¢200,000, describing the gap as unacceptable and calling for urgent reform and broad stakeholder consultation.
On job creation, the TUC argued that Ghana’s growth model, centred on natural resources and raw material exports since the mid-1980s, had consistently failed to generate quality employment at scale. Ansah contrasted this with China’s experience, where manufacturing-led growth created large-scale jobs, and urged the government to prioritise agro-processing and domestic manufacturing. He warned that heavy import dependence was effectively exporting Ghanaian jobs and cautioned that programmes such as the 24-hour economy risked becoming channels for selling imported goods rather than building local capacity.
The TUC also pressed for credit market reform, arguing that lending rates remained too high relative to inflation and suggesting a cap on the spread between lending and deposit rates to encourage private sector investment.
On labour rights, Ansah raised concerns about the misuse of private employment agencies, the growing conversion of permanent positions into fixed-term contracts, and what he described as increasing politicisation of public sector appointments.
Turning to environmental issues, Ansah commended the government for revoking Legislative Instrument (L.I.) 2462, which had previously permitted mining in forest reserves. However, he warned that illegal mining continued to damage rivers and forests, saying Ghana would face a severe water crisis within years if the practice was not halted completely.
The TUC Secretary-General also called for faster employment of trained nurses and teachers, citing scenes of qualified professionals protesting for jobs at a time when health facilities and schools face acute staff shortages. He urged government intervention to support cocoa farmers facing lower producer prices and delays in the collection of stockpiled cocoa.
The Ghana Federation of Labour (GFL) and the Forum for Public Sector Associations and Unions did not attend the Koforidua ceremony, citing objections to the TUC’s exclusive control of the national platform.
