Address decent work deficit - GTPCWU

The General Transport, Petroleum and Chemical Workers Union (GTPCWU), has called on Government to address the huge decent work deficits faced by workers in the petroleum sector.

The GTPCWU workers have also expressed the fear that the situation pertaining in the solid mineral industry such as gold, where the chunk of revenue goes to the foreign companies, would occur in the oil industry.

This was disclosed at a two-day workshop in Accra to educate union leaders on the need to engage in decent work in the oil and gas industry. Mr Kwabena Nyarko Otoo, Head of Labour Research and Policy Institute of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), said in spite of the challenges, there was the need for effective organisation and mobilisation of workers and communities to demand their rights to decent work and to benefit from the revenue.

He said the union, working in collaboration with the Labour Research and Policy Institute of the TUC, would continue to engage in the policy formulation and implementation processes to ensure that the interest of workers and communities were safeguarded upfront.

He said: “Transparency remains a huge challenge despite the enactment of an elaborate Petroleum Revenue Management Act which spells out how revenues accruing to the country are to be used.” The communities in the catchments area continue to suffer degradation of the environment and endangerment of their livelihood with no compensation.

Mr Fuseini Iddrissu, General Secretary of GTPCWU, said production of oil in many countries on the continent had not brought about high standards of living hence the need for trade unions in Ghana to take up the oil and gas issues as a priority to protect the interest of workers and citizens.

“We will take proactive measures to demand our participation in the whole process to secure good working conditions, wages and benefits because the industry, in particular, is dangerous to the health of the people, hence the need to attain strict health and safety regulations at the production places,” he said.