ICU angry with Lebanese, Chinese employers

The Industrial & Commercial Workers’ Union of Ghana (ICU) has vehemently condemned what it describes as the exploitation of workers in Ghana by foreign employers, particularly Indians, Chinese and Lebanese.

According to ICU, a large number of companies, particularly the multinationals had adopted new methods of depriving their Ghanaian employees of some benefits as a result of the indigenes’ ignorance about the benefits that they are entitled to.

ICU indicated that the indigenes have no choice than to accept what their employers offer them because of the high unemployment rate in the country.

General Secretary of ICU, Solomon Kotei, disclosed this on Tuesday in Accra during the celebration of this year’s World Precarious Workers Day.

He stated that many employers with the intention of depriving their employees of certain benefits such as medical facility, pension scheme, sick-leave, among others, usually hire staff on a temporary basis.

Such casual or temporary employees, he said, were being made to perform the same tasks as the “so-called permanent colleagues who earn higher income.”

Mr Kotei stated that “this abuse of the precarious workers’ rights is prevalent among the Indian, Chinese and Lebanese employers.”

“Yet by virtue of their stratification, they are discriminated against, ostracized from the facilities and denied benefits enjoyed by their permanent colleagues,” he said.

Explaining further, he said, “Some of these workers do not benefit from any pension scheme; they do not benefit from their employers’ medical facilities and many other fringe benefits that their so-called permanent colleagues are entitled to, besides being rated as second-class workers.”

He said the foreigner employers violate Section 75 of the Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651), the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 100, which demands equal remuneration for equal work, as well as ILO Convention 111, which abhors discrimination in employment and occupation.

In view of this, the Union has petitioned President John Dramani Mahama, through the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, to address the problems.

ICU also appealed to the government to take a second look at the law on tax regarding overtime work to enable workers “willingly accept to do overtime work.” Precarious Workers Day is observed annually to highlight the plight of workers.