Executive influence compromises Labour Commission - Councils of Labour

Ho, Sept 15, GNA - The dominant influence of the Executive in operationalising the National Labour Commission could threaten the Commission's role as an impartial and effective arbiter in labour disputes.

The danger could be grave should the government, the major employer, be involved in any industrial dispute with any of the unions. These reservations were expressed by representatives of the District Councils of Labour in the Volta Region at a session in Ho to discuss the Labour Act, Act 651 of 2003.

It was sponsored by the BUSAC FUND and the Trade Union Congress (TUC). The participants argued that the power of the President to appoint the Chairman of the Commission has the potential to compromise the impartiality of the Chairman who owed his position to the President. They said failure of government to facilitate the establishment of the Regional and District Committees of the Commission, five years into the passage of the Act establishing the Commission, showed the extent to which the government could remotely manipulate the work of the Commission.

The participants expressed worry over the fact that the Commissioners were all par-timers which did not augur well for expeditious tackling of issues that might be brought to the Commission.

The unionists said the plurality of unions in the same work place as provided in the law has the potential to weaken the principle of collectivism which is at the core of trade unionism. They said even though not new, the provision for plurality of unions in workplaces had led to the mushrooming of rival workplace unions, made more so by the right to free association as contained in the 1992 constitution.

They were however happy that some of such rival unions such as the GNAT and NAGRAT and the ICU and UNICOF have found common grounds to co-operate in promoting their common interests and urged others to follow the example to be able to survive. Regarding the President's powers to appointment the Commission's Chairman the participants suggested that such powers be bestowed on members of the Commission to elect one of their members as Chairman. They also suggested that the various umbrella Labour Unions in the country should take the initiative to establish the Regional and District Committees of the Commission because of their role in the effective functioning of the Commission.

Mr Maxwell Akoto-Mireku, Volta Regional Secretary of the TUC, called for "appropriate and adequate resources for the National Labour Commission as well as recognition for its decisions and verdicts". He said, "Methods adopted by other stakeholders to control labour as a social force that could frustrate economic policy will deepen poverty.