As published today by the state-owned media Daily Graphic, the Labour Research and Policy Institute of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has come out with a finding that almost half of media workers in the country earn less than GH₵200 a month.
According to the study, 44 percent of the media workforce earn below the average income in the industry, which was said to be GH₵200.
Speaking to the issue, Mr. Dave Agbenu, Acting General Secretary of GJA (Ghana Journalists Association) confirmed the findings contained in the research, adding that a lot of journalists are not receiving the appropriate remuneration.
“…many of the media organizations don’t factor in remuneration of journalists, and therefore many of them are not paid well. A lot of journalists are not getting the appropriate remuneration, and this is something we have known for a long time,” he said.
In an interview with Suhini Alhassan on Radio Gold, the acting GJA General Secretary said that the situation is having a telling effect on journalists, since whenever they go on assignments they always expect an ‘envelope’ to be given to them.
Mr. Agbenu, who believes unionization offers the best solution in solving the problem, also maintained that if journalists are in the know of their minimum wage, they can then demand for an increase if their income is below their minimum wage.
“once we are unionized we can negotiate minimum wages for our members, we have written to the Trades Union Congress and they have replied, what is left is to have the bargaining certificates which will allow us to move into the media houses to ensure our members are unionized,” he stated.