World Precarious Workers Day: ICU frown at workers right abuse

The Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) in Ghana on Tuesday marked the maiden “World Precarious Workers “Day, with a call on government and the civil society, to address the abuse of the rights of precarious workers.

Mr. Solomon Kotei, General Secretary of the Union who made the call in Accra, also appealed to government to take a second look at the law on tax on overtime work, to enable workers willingly accept to do overtime to increase the country's gross domestic product.

Mr. Kotei disclosed that the Union would soon present a petition to government, because the extent to which some employers had abused section 75 of the Labour Act, 2003, Act (Act 661) that granted them the privilege to engage casual and temporary workers, was reaching an alarming proportion.

Mr. Kotei said it was regrettable that some employers were abusing the intended application so much so that some workers had worked in some organisations continuously for 10 years without being confirmed as permanent staff.

He further regretted that by virtue of their stratification, casual workers were discriminated against, ostracized from the facility and benefits enjoyed by their permanent colleagues, and denied their security as workers.

Mr. Kotei pointed out that this class of workers do the same type of work, and work for the same number of hours as their permanent colleagues, but have comparatively lower rates of pay which is a gross injustice, and therefore morally unacceptable.

He said some employers in Ghana were acting contrary to ILO Convention 100, which demanded equal work and ILO Convention 111 which abhorred discrimination in employment and occupation, ratified by Ghana making it obligatory for every employer in Ghana to abide by.

Mr. Kotei alleged that the abuses were prevalent among Indians, Chinese, and Lebanese employers; adding that about 80 percent of precarious workers were not unionized: “54 per cent had no written contracts with their employers, 80 per cent were paid salaries ranging from a minimum of 70 Ghana cedis to a maximum of 700 Ghana cedis per month, and 53 per cent had no access to medical facilities provided by their employers, while 28.9 per cent between the ages of 18 and 54 did not have the benefit of Social Security and National Insurance Trust contributions,” he submitted.