New Ghana Labour Bill in the offing

Mr Austin Gamey, a Consultant at Gamey and Gamey Academy of Meditation Limited, on Thursday said the new Labour Bill when passed into an Act, would encourage both foreign and local investors to invest in the country and create more employment for the people.

"The Labour Bill is the first ever all-inclusive bill that has been introduced in Ghana," he said, and stressed the need for Ghanaians to embrace it in order to achieve significant changes in the lives of every worker.

Mr Gamey was speaking at a two-day workshop organised by the Ghana Registered Nurses Association (GRNA) for its regional nursing officers to sensitise them on the Labour Bill, which is currently before Parliament.

The Bill aims among other things to bring within the law, good practices that have been developed over the years outside the existing law to give legal basis for those practices and rationalise government's role as the policy maker in the labour field and as an employer.

Mr Gamey admitted that the lack of information on the Bill led to its abortion at its infant stage and appealed to the media to give it the necessary publicity to encourage the people to accept it.

"It is obvious that in every human setting there is the temptation to resist any change that is new to the people or when the people do not understand the change and do not know the benefit they would derive from that change” he observed. He said there were problems at the hospitals because people were dissatisfied, adding, "all these problems would not come about when the Bill comes into being".

Mr Manfred S. K. Ntumi, First Vice President of GRNA, said the aim of the workshop was to bring managers of the nursing profession together to discuss the Bill, understand its import to enable them to contribute meaningfully to its formulation process.

Mr Ntumi urged the participants to listen to people coming in with new ideas so that they could effect quality changes. Ms Mariama Sumani, Chief Nursing Officer of the Ministry of Health, stressed the need for stakeholders to be involved in effecting a change to avoid unnecessary resistance. She urged the public to be opened-minded and be prepared to accept changes to ensure rapid development.