Employment Ministry refutes claim retirement age has been lowered

The Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations has refuted claims that the retirement age for government employees has been reduced to 50. It said the mandatory retirement age for all public-sector workers remains 60.

Last week, there were reports in the media that the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffour Awuah, had announced a reduction in the retirement age for public servants. But the assistant public relations officer at the ministry, Osei-Opoku Gyamfi, said these are false.

There has been no contemplation at any level of government of reducing the age of retirement in Ghana, Gyamfi said. He therefore urged the public to disregard the publication.

“The ministry has not made any statement in that regard and as far as it is concerned there has been no move to reduce the retirement age of government employees, nor has there been a proposal discussed or contemplated at any level in the government,” he said.

In a separate statement, the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations described the publication as malicious.

“The Minister has noted with great concern the misleading publication,” the statement said. “The ministry wishes to inform the public that the said publication is untrue and malicious.”

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The government announced new rules in June to guide post-retirement contracts for lecturers at public universities.

The new rules allow for professorial grade staff (associate professors and professors) to teach until they attain the age of 70.

The Minister of Education, Matthew Opoku Prempeh, said this had become necessary because more academic staff were needed to support the significant anticipated increase in tertiary enrolment as a result of the Free Senior High School programme.

He said professors “shall be [retained] for five years up to the age of 65, and then afterwards contracts shall be offered, subject to need and good health”.

However, Opoku Prempeh said, “If a university does not need your services or a professor does not want to be engaged, then the contract will not be put in place.”

E A Alanore

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