The Trades Union Congress on Tuesday called for a new partnership between employers and labour, which would place the interest of the country first and push the government to move along with it.

Mr Kwasi Adu-Amankwah, TUC Secretary-General, said this new partnership was important in view of the growing threat of globalisation that seeks to position the world's economy over the sovereignty of weaker nations.

"Government cannot lead the way, we can and we must do it," he said, and emphasised the need for an overriding interest to re-engineer a new country based on common values that thrive on hard work and respect for rights and obligations and nurturing of creativity."(We need) a new nation in which we have a caring elite and ruling classes who only do not think of their comfort, but are smart and sensitive enough to see that their fortunes are tied to the well-being of the people over whose affairs they preside."

Mr Adu-Amankwah was speaking at the second national employers' conference on the topic: "Removing Obstacles to Private Sector Development in Ghana - The Role of Organised Labour."

He stressed the need for a strong organised labour, which would contribute effectively to overcome the obstacles that impede the growth of the private sector. "Only strong organised labour will be fully capable of confronting resolutely the problems of lack of motivation, low skills and the abuse of rights at the workplace," he said.

Mr Adu-Amankwah said employers had everything to gain from a labour that is strong and purposeful since it can contribute to ensure that the workplace endures as a place for work, creativity and decent living.

He called on employers to support the expansion of trade union movement rather than work to undermine it.

Mr Ebenezer Essoka, Chief Executive Officer of Standard Chartered Bank, Ghana, asked employers to be organised in effective groups to enable them to influence government policies affecting the macro-economic environment.