Workers urged to observe labour laws

Mr Haruna Iddrisu, Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, has urged workers to discard the notion that strikes are the only language the government understands when making demands.

Workers must use channels provided by the labour laws to address their grievances before resorting to strikes to urge government to meet their demands.

Mr Iddrisu said this over the weekend when he was answering questions at the 2nd National Forum on the Implementation of the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP) in Takoradi.

He said strikes would reduce to the minimum if the labour laws are observed and workers make demands that are line with the stated laws.

Mr Iddrisu asked workers to endeavour to resolve labour issues amicably adding “many issues would not even travel to great distance when considered in the light of the labour laws”.

Dr Anthony Yaw Baah, Deputy Secretary-General of the Trades Union Congress, said some of the concerns of unions in the first phase of the SSPP are the delay in the implementation of Market Premium and the freeze of annual increments since the introduction of Single Spine Salary Structure.

He said other concerns are declining real wages, the freeze of categories 2 and 3 allowances at 2009 levels and implications of the International Monetary Fund bailout conditions for public sector salaries.

Dr Baah said blaming all the country’s woes on the SSPP has undermined the policy and a collective effort is needed to redeem the image of the policy.

He said the second phase of the SSPP involves productivity enhancement through Performance Management (PM) which “is a means of getting better results from the organisation, teams and individuals by understanding and managing performance within an agreed framework of planned, goals, objectives and standards”.

Dr Baah said the aim of PM is to establish a culture in which managers, individuals and groups take responsibility for the continuous improvement of business or organisational processes and of their own skills, competences and contributions.

He said “PM is a much broader concept than performance appraisal or performance-related pay…We should see PM as an integral of part of Human Resource Management”.

Dr Baah said unions should expect full involvement in the performance management process to ensure that all their members are treated fairly and unions and their members expect the employer and government to fulfill its obligations in accordance with the Labour Act.

He said employers also expect unions and their members to fulfil their obligations under the Act.