The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) needs to utilise its new unionisation status to demand better remuneration for journalists, says Minister of Information, Mr Mustapha Hamid.
Journalists are among the lowest paid in Ghana, and the Minister believes that the GJA now has the opportunity to change the situation by using its bargaining rights to demand good pay for its members.
He said, although media work remained a social service, it has become more of a business enterprise and, therefore, journalists who are the pillars of that enterprise must be appreciated and rewarded with good pay.
Mr Hamid who advised at the Volta Regional GJA Awards during the weekend was astonished to the reality of media practitioners being paid as low as GH¢300 a month.
“If we say the media is the watchdog of our democratic process, then it should not be possible for a media personnel to be compromised but how do we say that media practitioners should not be compromised when they are being paid as less as GH¢300, GH¢400,” he lamented.
He, therefore, encouraged the leadership of the GJA to actively bargain for “better emoluments for journalists”.
The GJA, last September, secured a bargaining certificate by the Trade Union Congress, Ghana (TUC), to become a unionised body.
Consequently, the association is empowered to legally fight for the industrial and professional rights, as well as the welfare of media practitioners.
Currently, a committee has been set up to fashion out the modalities for the transition into unionism and the implementation of its bargaining rights.
By Nii Adotey/adrdaily.com
