The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has urged the government to address the delays in the payment of pension contributions of workers to improve their welfare during retirement.

This was contained in a statement by the trades unions and read by Felicia Kraja, Northern Regional Secretary of TUC at this year’s May Day celebrations in Tamale.

Madam Kraja said government owed the public sector second-tier schemes pension contributions to the tune of almost one billion Cedis as well as the first-tier contributions to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust

This year’s celebration was on the theme: “Election 2024: The Role of Workers and Social Partners in Securing Peaceful Election for National Development”.

Madam Kraja urged the government to come up with a way forward to address the situation.

She further urged the government to address the current intermittent power outages, which he indicated was affecting workers productivity and the country’s economy.

Alhaji Shani Alhassan Saibu, Northern Regional Minister, urged labour unions to devote more time to their work to improve productivity to better the conditions of service for their members.

He advised workers to avoid lateness, absenteeism, pilfering and laziness, and said such acts affected productivity and the country’s development.

He gave assurance that the government was working together with the Security Services and the Electoral Commission to ensure fair, transparent, and peaceful elections this year.