NLC to bite next year.

Wa, Nov. 9, GNA- The National Labour Commission will, as from next year, rigorously exercise the full powers conferred on it under the new Labour Law in the settlement of industrial disputes. The Commission has the powers of a high court.

It has there advised employers, including the government and organized labour to purge themselves of the old order of going about handling of industrial disputes for the new order.

Mr Joseph A. Aryitey, chairman of the Commission said this at a sensitization seminar it organized at Wa on Wednesday for employers, workers and the trade unions.

The seminar was to educate the social partners on the functions and powers of the NLC and the objectives of the new labour law as well as what was expected of them.

He said the labour law has provided mechanisms for the settlement of industrial disputes through negotiations, mediation, voluntary arbitration and compulsory arbitration.

The chairman therefore urged all the social partners to try to understand the important provisions of the Labour Act. He said very soon the commission would send out labour inspectors to workplaces to ensure the enforcement of the national minimum wage policy, as it was well known that some employers still pay below the national minimum wage.

Mr Kwasi Danso Acheampong, deputy chairman of the Commission announced that the Commission would open its regional offices at Tema, Takoradi and Kumasi with the rest of the regional capitals to be followed later. He said under the new Labour Law, it was compulsory for every worker to take his or her annual leave adding that under no circumstance should the leave be sold.

Among the audience was Mr B. O. Tetteh, the supervising High Court judge at Wa.