Let’s define decent work

The Chairman of the Industrial Liaison Council Ghana, an affiliate of Industrial Global Union, Mr Solomon Kotei, has called for a local legislation to clearly define and regulate decent work.

He said the union had observed that because laws in Ghana were silent over what constituted decent work, some employers were meting out unacceptable treatments against workers which could constitude illigalitis under international labour laws.

Speaking to the media in Accra, Mr Kotei, noted: “Some employers have taken advantage of the situation and have subjected employees to unstable employment, lower wages and more dangerous working conditions.”

Unjustly retrenching workers

According to Mr Kotei, a number of employers in the country were using all kinds of tricks such as, reorganisation, amalgamation, takeover and outsourcing to concentrate on core business among others to unjustly retrench workers.

“They do this mainly to cut down on operational costs and maximise profits at the expense of workers. They then in collusion with some employment agencies; re-engage the retrenched workers back into the same company as casual or contract workers and made to work number of hours as permanent workers, but with reduction of benefit,” he explained.

He said some employers in the country were abusing the section 7 of the Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651) so much that casual workers had been continuously denied of permanent work after ten years of working as casual employees.

Mr Kotei described precarious workers as those who occupied permanent positions but were denied permanent employee rights, which included reduction in salaries and deprivation of social insurance and protection.

He mentioned workers who were poorly paid as the key indicators of precarious work in the country, adding that they comprised those earning below the minimum wages, and also those earning above the minimum standard but below a designated level.

“It is very important that we appreciate that the idea of social wages is to encompass not just earnings but also the level of benefits provided by the employer to the employee,” he said.

He indicated that the two important institutions regulating labour in Ghana, the National Labour Commission (NLC) and the labour Department, were poorly resourced such that they have been compelled by their situation to act under capacity. — GB