The Executive Secretary of the National Labour Commission (NLC), Ofosu Asamoah has called on government to adequately resource the commission as lack of resources is woefully affecting its core mandate of providing legal assistance to workers and employers across the country.
Major challenges affecting the commission according to him are human resource, funding and logistics.
“We have only one lawyer at the legal department instead of four working at the National Labour Commission; writing, providing counsel, legal opinion and going to court. He is overwhelmed and sometimes we have our cases struck out of court for want of prescription because the lawyer is out working on other cases.”
Ofosu Asamoah revealed these at an Organised Labour forum on the economy organized in Accra under the theme, “Industrial Dispute Resolution: The Law& Practice.”
He explained that although the commission is to operate all over the country, it’s operations has been restricted to the capital, Accra as government has refused to release funds to make operational offices in other regions.
“We must be properly resourced to discharge our mandate; for the whole year we have not received any funds, no capital expenditure, refurbishment of offices, replacement of machinery, and maintenance of vehicle that is why we are unable to move out of Accra.”
Although the commission is enjoined to provide services within 3 days of receiving complaints, these challenges have resulted in a backlog of 200 cases from May to July this year.
“The commission has only two motorbikes which is as old as the commission (about 15 years old). We have two pickups and only one is road worthy,” he lamented.
All these coupled with other challenges has led to loss of confidence in the commission as workers have resorted to the courts to seek justice.
Way forward
According to Ofosu Asamoah, the commission should be allowed to mobilize funds internally and clients should pay for services at a subsidized fee as government has neglected the commission.
He urged that the various trade unions that employ the services of NLC should also make contributions to take care of the filing fees as the commission cannot afford filling fees to take cases to court.
Speaking to journalists at the sidelines of the forum, Dr Yaw Baah Secretary General of Trade Union Congress (TUC), supported the commission’s call for immediate assistance and concurred that it should be allowed to internally generate funds to finance its activities.
“Workers do not get justice as government is not funding the NLC. They should be allowed to generate funds internally to enable them discharge their duties effectively,” he noted.
Dr Baah further said there are about 11 million workers in Ghana with a huge number of them belonging to the informal sector so it behoves on the TUC to ensure that every one of them have access to the Labour Comission.
About the forum and NLC
The forum was organized with the aim of creating a platform for leaders of organized labour and the newly appointed Chairman and members of the commission to discuss how they can work to minimize or settle industrial disputes in a manner that will ensure peace and harmony for economic growth and social development.
The forum attended by over 200 union leaders and members from 30 unions was organized by the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Friedrich Ebert Stifung (Ghana Office)
The NLC was established by Act 651(2003) to facilitate the settlement of industrial disputes and investigate labour related complaints.
By Pamela Ofori-Boateng/Business World Ghana