Leadership of the Health Services Workers Union (HSWU) has sent a strong indication that it is going beyond negotiation for better condition of service to prioritizing welfare of members.

General Secretary of HSWU, Franklin Owusu Ansah disclosed this in Tema while the Union was partnering with Stanbic Bank to attend to members’ welfare needs.

“Negotiations for condition of service and salaries seem to the basic things unions do and it is time to go beyond that and move into welfare issues.” he said.

Partnership with the bank will see over 40,000 members of the Union across both public and private health facilities benefiting from mortgages, personal loans through to auto loans.

Members could access unsecured personal loans up to the tune of GH¢300,000.

Stakeholders in the partnership are currently going into details across the various regions to help the bank serve beneficiaries better.

Touching on Covid-19, Franklin Owusu urged members to adhere to precautionary measures.

“At the early stages of the outbreak, HSWU bought sanitizers, Personal Protective Equipment among other things and distributed to members. Despite these steps, some were infected and we later lost a few of them,” he revealed.

He urged government to ensure health workers enjoyed incentives they have been promised as they dedicate their lives to serve in the midst of the pandemic.

For Secretary-General of Trades Union Congress, Ghana, Dr. Yaw Baah, the partnership is a step in the right direction.

“At our last congress which took place in March, we adopted a policy which had a number of pillars including one on welfare under what is termed worker- centeredness”

He was happy the package included mortgage at a lower rate and asked members of HSWU to take advantage of this rare opportunity.

He however wanted the bank to be very transparent because of some past experiences.

“When you are entering it looks so good but only tend to regret after accepting it. Although this deal is a bit different, I have still charged the leaders to be vigilant and provide every information that beneficiaries will need,” he said.

TUC considers the HSWU-Stanbic deal as a pilot and once it succeeds, it will approach the bank to extend it to its entire membership.

Beyond this, Dr. Baah indicated that TUC is working with some insurance companies to get a life insurance package for every dues-paying member.