GTUC condemns violation of workers’ rights

24/12/10

Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
THE Ghana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) has condemned the increasing violation of workers’ rights, particularly in the private sector, where the workers are poorly paid, mistreated and dismissed at will.
Besides, it said, many employers in the private sector did not allow their workers to form or join trade unions, contrary to Ghana’s Constitution and the Labour Act.
The Secretary General of the GTUC, Mr Kofi Asamoah, therefore, charged employers in the private sector, particularly foreign employers, “to respect the rights and freedoms of workers” as they prepared to enter a new year.
He urged workers in both the private and public sectors to report any form of violation of their rights to their union representatives or directly to the GTUC for the necessary action to be taken against such employers in accordance with the law.
Mr Asamoah was speaking in Accra at the GTUC/media end-of-year encounter on Wednesday.
The encounter, organised in conjunction with the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), was for stocktaking, planning for next year and socialisation.
Mr Asamoah reminded employers that Ghana’s Constitution had elaborate provisions on fundamental human rights and freedoms, including workers’ and trade union rights.
For instance, he said, the Labour Act 2003 (Act 651) provided for the rights of workers, and, therefore, “we should not be experiencing the violations of these rights at this scale”.
Mr Asamoah urged the government to provide direct employment to the youth in priority areas such as education, health, security, housing, sanitation, water supply and transport.
He said the GTUC did not share the view held by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank that the public sector was overbloated, as there was every indication that the country needed more teachers, health workers as well as police men and women.
The GTUC Secretary General said data from the Labour Department showed that thousands of workers were declared redundant this year, and urged the government to ensure that the improvement in the economy reflected in the security of employment and incomes of workers.
“It is clear that the private sector alone cannot provide the number of decent jobs required for social development in Ghana. For the private sector to become the real engine of growth and to be able to provide jobs in their right quality and quantities, it has to be supported actively by the government,” he stressed.
Mr Asamoah asked the government to facilitate the placing on the Single Spine Pay Policy structure public service workers, including workers in the Ghana Education Service, the Civil Service, the Health Service and the Judicial Service.
He again charged management of organisations that were still working on the migration of their staffs to fast-track the process “to ensure that their staffs are placed on the new structure as soon as possible”.
He commended the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare for its efforts to revive tripartite consultation, and urged the government to commit more human, material and financial resources to tripartite consultation and social dialogue within the framework of the Ghana Decent Work Programme.
He said the GTUC supported initiatives to provide decent housing for workers, but cautioned the government not to mortgage the country’s future for present generation.
Concerning oil, Mr Asamoah stressed the need for Ghana to explore the possibility of switching from the royalty-based agreements to Production Sharing Agreement (PSA), which emphasises state ownership of petroleum resources.
Touching on the Cote d’Ivoire crisis, he said the GTUC joined the International Trade Union Confederation Africa (ITUC-Africa), to condemn all initiatives and acts that had been taken against the expressed will of the majority of the people of Cote d’Ivoire.
The President of the GJA and Editor of the Daily Graphic, Mr Ransford Tetteh, commended the GTUC for supporting the GJA’s efforts to unionise the association.
He called for further support from the GTUC on which steps to take towards the unionisation of the GJA, and make it possible for the GJA to fight for the improvement of the living conditions of journalists.
The Chairman of the GTUC, Mr Alex Bonney, who chaired the occasion, said the GTUC/media interaction was a good platform for stock-taking and interaction between GTUC and media practitioners.