Labout Commission Chairman exposed

MR. J.A. ARYITEY, the Chairman of the National Labour Commission, who doubles as the counsel for Ghana Textile Printing (GTP) Company Ltd in a case against 160 ex-GTP workers over non-payment of their entitlement in the last 17 years has been exposed.

According to GTP insiders, Aryitey over the years teamed-up with the management of the GTP to meet out injstice against 160 workers who were decleared as surplus.

"We did not understand why he still in court against the workers even after picking up the appointment as the chairman of the labour commission who have used all the technicallities in the law for a case which was filled 1993 against GTP not to be heard", an insider who did not want to be named told the SUN.

However Aryitey has debunked claims that he has betrayed workers as well as involved in the conflict of interest.

?It is true that I am the counsel for the GTP over the case that has dragged on for 13 years in court but my involvement in the case does not make it conflict of interest since I am a part-time worker as the Chairman of the National Labour Commission. If I was fully employed that could have been a different story,? he told The Sun on Friday.

A section of the public insiders in GTP and the 160 workers who were declared surplus in 1989 without payment of their salaries and their entitlement have accused the chairman of the National Labour Commission who is also the leading counsel for GTP, Mr. Ayitey of conflict of interest and betrayal of the course of the poor workers. However when The Sun reached the chairman of the commission last Friday morning he said he was not involved in the conflict of interest.

He said as far as he was concerned the case between the 160 ex-GTP workers and the company was not before the commission. Again he was even handling a case against government in court but nobody has complained that it was conflict of interest.

?Why do these workers running from the forum where the case was being handled to the press,? he questioned.

?If they have any problem they must raise their objection in court,? he said. The predicaments of the 160 ex-GTP workers started in 1989 when they were declared surplus by the management. The workers were made to believe that they would be called back to take their positions when there were vacancies. However, since 1989 the management of GTP have engaged new people to fill the positions which these workers were occupying. The action by the management did not go down well with the surplus workers. They, therefore, filed a writ in Tema High Court seeking redress but since 1993 when the writ was filed hearing is yet to commence with the Chairman of the Labour Commission leading the GTP legal team all these years, even after his appointment