The General Secretary of Trade Union Congress (TUC), Dr. Yaw Baah, has emphasised that, Ghana’s labour laws needs to be reviewed such that, it would address the lackadaisical attitude of Ghanaians towards work.
He said, such attitude has a negative effect on productivity which hinders the development of the country. Adding that, “Workers should do away with lateness and laziness, how can we develop our country with such lackadaisical attitude to work.”
According to him, “Our laws are not friendly to us at work. When you read section 65 of our law which allows employers to do what they want and they always refer to that law. The antidote to that is for us to change the law.”
Dr. Baah made these assertions in an interview with Newsghana.com.gh at the Pre-May Day Celebration Forum at the Mensvic Hotel in Accra, dubbed: ‘Sustainable Development Goals and Decent Work: The Role of Social Partners”
However, he drew attention on the happenings at Goldfields Ghana last month, where some employees were laid off just like that, to their own faiths.
According to him, he had already told the Minister of Employment that, there should be a policy direction from the government, which would address issues such as that of the Goldfields, where the contracts of 2000 people all of a sudden changed from permanent employees to casual workers.
This he said, is very unfortunate and unacceptable thus, contract working limits the benefits and rights of workers under the labour laws of the country which needs to be changed.
Dr. Yaw Baah further pointed out that, the Goal 8 of the SDGs, talks about decent work and economic growth, therefore, one could not have a decent work when the economy is not growing.
However, he said there is no reason why any Ghanaian should be poor because, there are lots of resources in the country. Stressing that, “SDG 8, focuses on decent work, which brings people to participate in the development process. “Because as Trade Unions, we are not just interested in growth or development, but making Ghanaians part of the process and it is through work that people show their potentials and that is why the decent work is extremely important.”
Nonetheless, Dr. Baah blamed our successive government’s for resorting to IMF with its conditionalities which has been a contributory factor to job insecurity in the country. Saying, “Ghana’s prosperity does not depend on IMF.”
Dr. Grace Bediako, the Director of National Development Planning Commission, in her presentation also spelt out that, according to IMF, sustainable development was only useful if it led to improved welfare of ordinary people by way of generating more decent jobs that provided a living wage, social protection and workers right.
Thus, “These were the best way to promote the three components of SDGs, economic growth, social cohesion and environmental sustainability.”
And the Resident Director of Friedrich Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Ghana, Mr. Fritz Kopsieker called for Private Public Partnership which would serve as a catalyst for national development, since national development goes beyond the sphere of the economy and the private sector.
The forum which brought together about 700 participants made up of leaderships of the various Unions, was organized by the Organized Labour led by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), under the auspices of the Friedrich Ebert- Stiftung (FES), as part of the 2018 National May Day Celebrations.
Meanwhile, this year’s May Day celebration was announced to be held at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi.
By:Sammy Adjei/Newsghana.com.gh
