Workplace promotions must be deserved — Austin Gamey
A labour and alternative dispute resolution (ADR) expert, Austin Gamey, has urged industry leaders in the country to match wages and promotion with productivity and to reward productive workers for their contributions.
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He said the practice of paying and promoting people across the board without regard to productivity as a common practice in the public sector was a bane to development and against the spirit of the Labour Act, of 2003 (Act 651).
At the annual conference of the Chartered Institute of Administrators and Management Consultants — Ghana (CIAMC) in Accra, he said the work ethic of some leaders and workers was a major factor in the declining fortunes of the country.
“We pretend to be paying workers, and they pretend to be working,” he said, bemoaning what he describes as the unproductive nature of the country.
“Employers are paying people for appearing at the workplace, not because they are working.
People are busily working lotto, others are busily using hours to speak on the phone about unnecessary things.
This lazy, lackadaisical way of doing work in this country must stop,” he said.
Mr Gamey, who is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Pulse Institute Africa, therefore, called on administrators and heads of institutions to put in measures and appraisal systems that would reward hard work to improve productivity.
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Conference
The CIAMC is a professional body of administrators from both public and private institutions.
The fifth annual conference held at the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) Conference Centre in Accra was on the theme: “Mobilising Admin Professional for Effective Development Administration: Critical Legal Issues”.
The event, which attracted more than 1,000 participants, both in person and online, was chaired by the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof. Nana Aba Appiah Amfo.
Apart from Mr Gamey, other resource persons at the conference were Sam Okudzeto, a member of the Council of State, who spoke about the legal regime on ‘meetings’ of Boards, and Afua Brown-Eyeson, a legal practitioner who took the participants through the law on land and landed property.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CIAMC, Samuel Mawusi Asafo, said the conference provided an opportunity for administrators to build their capacities, interact and share ideas to improve on their work and continue to contribute positively to the development of the country.
Administrators, he said, must be innovative and take decisions, which would develop their institutions within the context of the law and with regard to due process.
“In the midst of innovation, and the willingness to take risks in order to encourage change and growth, the administration practitioner must be concerned about the legal implications of his or her decisions,” he said.
Prof. Amfo called on administrators to take advantage of learning opportunities that enabled them to become better professionals in their fields and also help them to improve their people’s skills to properly manage any situation.
She lauded the Board Chairman of CIAMC, Ehunabobrim Prah Agyesaim VI, and said the conference for the past years had equipped administrators with the requisite skills and effective tools to take on the current global challenges.
Writer’s email: emma.hawkson@graphic.com.gh