For a government that campaigned largely on the promise of job creation and rode to power on the hopes of Ghana’s teeming unemployed youth, the glaring disparity in budgetary allocations between the Ministry of Labour, Jobs and Employment and the Office of Government Machinery raises serious questions about its commitment to employment policies.
In an exclusive interview with The High Street Journal (THSJ) , Deputy Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Dr. Kwabena Nyarko Otoo, criticized the government for the significant budgetary gap between the Ministry of Labour, Jobs and Employment and the Office of Government Machinery.
In the 2025 budget, the Ministry of Labour, Jobs and Employment has been allocated only GH₵17.6 million for goods and services, a stark contrast to the GH₵847.9 million allocated to the Office of Government Machinery.
Checks by THSJ from the 2024 budget showed an even lower allocation of GH₵7million for the then Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations against GH₵924.1million for the Office of Government Machinery.
According to the TUC, this highlights the government’s lack of prioritization of labour and employment policies despite rising unemployment and labour-related challenges
Dr Otoo decried what he called the systematic underfunding of Ghana’s labour institutions, warning that, “it is crippling the country’s ability to govern the labour market effectively.”
He noted that while the Ministry is not directly responsible for job creation, it plays a crucial role in ensuring that all economic sector ministries—including agriculture, manufacturing, and industry—align their policies with a national employment strategy.
“The Ministry should be strong enough to influence procurement policies across various ministries, ensuring that goods and services for major government programs, such as Free SHS, are locally sourced to create jobs for young Ghanaians,” Dr. Otoo stated. “However, with this level of underfunding, the Ministry can barely execute its core functions beyond paying staff salaries.”
The TUC further noted that the neglect of statutory institutions for industrial relations and social dialogue has led to frequent violations of workers’ rights. The dismissal of three workers from Sunon Asogli for joining the Ghana Mine Workers Union was cited as a recent example of such abuses. The persistent failure to fund institutions responsible for social dialogue, including the National Tripartite Committee, has reduced their roles to merely setting the minimum wage annually rather than addressing broader labour market concerns.
The state of the National Tripartite Committee, which, under the Labour Act, is supposed to handle various industrial relations issues is alarming. Dr. Otoo noted that due to resource constraints, the Committee had been reduced to merely setting a minimum wage annually—often leaving workers earning less than $2 a day.
“This is a statutory institution, but without proper funding, it has been rendered almost useless,” he stressed. “Workers are left with no option but to resort to strikes because the institutions that should address their concerns are underfunded and ineffective.”
“The Tripartite Committee has several responsibilities under the Labour Law, but without a properly funded secretariat, it cannot effectively oversee industrial relations in the country,” Dr. Otoo added. “This underfunding contributes to unresolved grievances, forcing workers to resort to industrial actions and demonstrations.”
Labour experts argue that the failure to prioritize the Ministry of Labour, Jobs and Employment in the national budget is a missed opportunity for economic growth. A well-resourced ministry could enhance employment policies, strengthen labour institutions, and ensure job creation is a key component of Ghana’s economic strategy.
The TUC is urging the government to review its budgetary allocations and channel more resources toward labour and employment governance. According to the union, the sustainability of Ghana’s economic growth depends not only on macroeconomic stability but also on ensuring an active, well-regulated, and fair labour market that protects the rights of workers and promotes job creation.
“We need an urgent reset in budget priorities, indeed if Ghana is serious about job creation and labour market governance, the state must properly fund the very institutions responsible for “these mandates,”
The Deputy Secretary General demanded that statutory bodies responsible for employment and labour market governance are adequately funded from the Consolidated Fund. Failure to do so, he warned, will only deepen labour unrest and worsen the country’s unemployment crisis.
