The Ghana Federation of Labour (GFL) has recommended a 50 per cent haircut on the salaries and emoluments of Article 71 Office Holders as part of the Debt Restructuring Programme and to reduce the pressure on the public purse.

These include the President and Vice, the Speaker of Parliament, Chief Justice, and Justices of the Supreme Court, with salaries charged to the Consolidated Fund and enjoying special constitutional privileges.

Mr Abraham Koomson, the GFL General Secretary, said this at the Ghana News Agency Industrial News Hub platform at Tema, adding that Ghana was currently encountering a major financial challenge and Article 71 Office Holders could not sit aloof.

Speaking on the Government’s debt restructuring, he said the payment of ex-gratia must also undergo an overhaul of about 70 per cent cut and that the ordinary person could not be made to suffer the crisis alone.

He reiterated the call for a reduction in the number of presidential staffers, ministers of state, and other government appointees to reduce expenditure and set the tone to revive the economy.

He said the debt exchange programme should be undertaken with caution in order not to push people in the middle and lower classes into poverty, which would have a negative impact on national development.

Mr Koomson said the programme would also render most of the banks vulnerable and affect the living standard of the citizenry, hence called for circumspection.