Tema, July 9, GNA - Members of the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) have been urged to remain focused, united and work harder to assist their employers to raise productivity to justify pay increase. Mr Morgan Ayawine, Tema Municipal Principal Industrial Relations Officer gave the advice on Friday at Tema, when said it was only when they put in their maximum at work to the appreciation of management that they could demand higher wages and salaries.

He was closing a three-day seminar for 30 newly elected union executives and shop stewards from ICU establishments in Tema.

He said the ICU aimed at collaborating with its members throughout the country to create a congenial atmosphere at their workplaces and to fight against tendencies that would divide their rank and file.

To this end, Mr Ayawine impressed on members to eschew negative tendencies like laziness, malingering and back biting and rather aim at achieving the best in order to be an asset to their companies and the nation as a whole.

To avoid differences however, the Industrial Relations Officer asked the union executives to organise periodic educational drive on their duties and responsibilities for their members, since an informed worker always does the right thing so that they can appreciate the need to maximise production to uplift the image of their organisations. He encouraged them to always resort to dialogue to press home their demand because the "days when workers wore red bands and took to the streets is past".

Mr Ayawine asked the participants to let the knowledge acquired reflect in their work to encourage their colleagues do same. Topics treated included "Work Ethics and Productivity, Rights and Duties of Employers and Workers, Fair and Unfair Termination, Strikes and Lockouts, Trade Union Unity and Solidarity, the National Labour Commission, Introduction of Occupational Safety, Health and the Environment and Settlement of Industrial Disputes".