For the National Labour Commission (NLC) to effectively live-up to its core duty of stemming industrial disturbances and creating a harmonious working environment for workers in the country, the commission would first have to address the lean nature of its staff strength resulting from low renumerations. Maxwell Adombila Akalaare reports
THE umbrella body of labour in the country, the Ghana Trade Unions Congress (TUC) has identified “excessive delay and poor renumerations for staff of the National Labour Commission (NLC)” as the two most critical factors leading to the pile-up of labour-related disputes at the commission.
TUC has meanwhile admitted it’s reluctance in getting the government to ratify an International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Convention 158, even as the labour commission grapples with these labour related disputes, most of which are as a result of improper terminations by private employers.
He said the convention adopted by ILO nearly 30 years ago which the country is yet to ratify was to, among other things limit the powers of private employers from terminating the contracts of their employees “without giving meaningful reasons.”
Speaking to the GRAPHIC BUSINESS on the continuous rise in labour disputes in the country despite the existence of the labour commission, the Legal Officer of TUC, Mr Charles Bawaduah said “there is excessive delay in the handling of cases at the commission” as a result of the commission’s understaffed nature.
Explaining further, Mr Bawaduah said “there are even instances where some people employed at the commission leave after sometime due to poor renumerations.
“So clearly, the conditions of services at the commission are not even motivating enough to get the workers stay and work or do more,” an observation the NLC has discounted.
Mr Bawaduah’s assertions trail an earlier observation by the Ghana Employers Association (GEA) that “the NLC lacks the human and financial resources to ensure effective adjudication of labour disputes which are on the increase since its creation.”
The association also expressed “serious concern” over the dispute settlement process at the commission “especially regarding delays and adjournments” emphasising that “the number of complaints received by the commission is on the increase especially in the last three years.”
The setting up of the commission in 2005 was, to among other things reduce the rising number of labour disturbances in the country and in so doing, create a harmonious working environment for employers and employees alike.
Six years on, however such a vision seem to be in limbo following the upsurge of industrial disturbances.
Checks by the GRAPHIC BUSINESS at the NLC revealed an upsurge in labour-related cases received by the commission’s only office in Accra as they rose from 618 cases in 2008 to 740 in 2009 and 904 last year.
“I think the NLC has been doing its best but it can still do more; it has the potential to resolve more labour problems,” Mr Bawaduah observed.
While noting that the NLC needed to up its current stance in handling cases, Mr Bawaduah also took issue with private employers, especially those who do not permit the formation of unions to negotiate on workers’ behalf.
Most of the cases, according to him “emanate from privately owned institutions that do not have unions to negotiate on workers behalf during some of these matters.”
While the country’s constitution bares the government from dismissing public sector workers “without just cause”, private employers in the country are virtually at ease in terminating contracts of their employees, provided they give a one month notice to the employee. Such, is a loophole that has been cash-on by private employers to the detriment of employees.
Out of the 2,262 labour dispute related cases accumulated at the NLC over a three year period, unfair termination of employees, mostly by private employers top the list with 523 cases, a situation that could have been addressed if Ghana had ratify the ILO Convention 158 which advocates equal working rights for all.
“A lot of the labour disputes are often perpetrated by the employer, the private ones I should say because of this their erroneous feeling of ‘my business and if you don’t want, you can go,’” Mr Bawaduah observed but admitted that the TUC had not done enough to get the government ratify the ILO Convention 158.
COURTS NOT HELPING MATTERS
Although the Labour Act, Act 651 (2003) stipulates the opening up of regional and district branches of the NLC to help resolve labour disputes in those areas, the commssion is yet to live-up to that requirement, six years after its establishment.
“We are aware of the need for NLC to make its services accessible to anyone with grievances,” Mr Affum, Head of Public Affairs at the commission said but noted that the labour commission has been submitting budgets to the government to enable it open up regional offices “but that has not yet being approved.
Consequently, labour disputes in the regions all travel to Accra thereby compounding the volume of work to be handled by the commission’s five commissioners with some of them finding their ways into the courts.
Some of the courts, according to the TUC Legal Officer are, however not helping matters.
A case in point, he said was a recent supreme court ruling that compels the commission to exhibit its tripartite nature in resolving all cases brought before it.
“What this means is that all the five commissioners at the commission and at least, one representative each from labour, employers and government should be present before the commission can legally qualify to handle any case brought before it for redress. But that is a near impossibly,” Mr Bawaduah noted.
He added that the said ruling was even indirectly threatening the opening up of regional offices “since that will mean that the commissioners would also have to go to the regions to handle cases.”
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