Secretary General of Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC), Dr. Anthony Yaw Baah has pledged the union's commitment to work with government to rid the public sector payroll of ghost names.

His statement comes after the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, directed that names of more than 26,000 public sector workers be removed from government’s payroll commencing April 2017 for not registering on the new Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) biometric system.

A press statement from the ministry had explained that “those affected have not been registered on the new SSNIT biometric system, despite several directives to do so”.

Speaking to GhanaWeb on the sidelines of the May Day celebration, Dr. Yaw Baah mentioned that the union would give government the support needed for the execution.

“No government would want to pay ghosts; ghosts don’t exist so if we have names that are referring to people who do not exist, those names will be out of the payroll. We want to make sure in the course of doing this, some workers who are living are not punished because that’s our duties. We can assure workers that we are going to continue working with government to ensure no ghost is been paid. Ones we get that done, then we can enhance salaries for those who are working and living,” he said.