Committee agrees on ESB restoration

The National Tripartite Committee and other stakeholders engaged in discussion on the End-of-Service-Benefit (ESB) for workers have agreed on the need for its restoration. What is left to be done is about the form in which it should be restored.

General Secretary of the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU), Napoleon Kpoh, on a two-day working visit to Brong Ahafo Region told the Ghana News Agency in Sunyani that the ICU in December 2000 gave the then National Democratic Congress (NDC) government an ultimatum that, by January 2001, if it had not restored the ESB, the union would declare “war of ESB” on it.

Mr. Kpoh said however, that, they decided to adopt a dialogue approach by engaging the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government in discussion about the need to restore the ESB because it was a new administration, which did not freeze it in 1991.

“We did not declare the war as was planned in January 2001 because we realised that a new government had come and it did not freeze it, so we decided that, it was better to engage them in discussion to restore it rather than engaging in ESB war with them.”

”Our approach had yielded positive results as the matter had received government’s positive consideration and had therefore, been referred to the National Tripartite Committee”, the IUC boss added. He described the frozen of the ESB in 1991 by the PNDC (Provisional National Defence Council) government as illegal because it had no legal right to interfere with any negotiated condition of service.

The ICU resisted that action or move by the government, hence, up till now workers of some companies and organisations such as Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO) and West Africa Mills company (WANCO) still enjoyed the ESB. Mr. Kpoh said the ICU never kept quite when the PNDC government announced that decision and persisted in discussion with them about its restoration, since it was an illegal action that greatly affected the economic and social rights of workers.

The ICU gave the NDC government the ultimatum in December 2000 to restore the ESB by January 2001 because, notwithstanding the fact that its mother government the Provisional National Defence Council froze it, their ministers and officials year after year were taking it.

According to Mr. Kpoh the pressure for the restoration of the ESB is not necessarily against the present government of NPP, but it is a principle the ICU is applying. On the issue of “contract workers” or “casualisation of labour”, the General Secretary indicated that “every worker is a worker”, saying that no Ghanaian worker, irrespective of wherever he works, should be denied economic and social justice.

“It is therefore wrong for any employer to engage somebody as a casual labourer for months or years and deny him the benefits which other workers are enjoying, when all of them are doing the same work,” he added. He cited that some of such workers worked as long as eight to 12 years and thus were referred to as “permanent casuals.”

The ICU over the years had engaged in discussion on the problem with the then Minister of Employment and Social Welfare as well as the Labour Department but “our efforts did not yield any fruitful results,” Kpoh said. The ICU therefore, brought the problem to the attention of the drafters of the new labour law, he said, adding that, now the new Labour Code before Parliament has taken the issue of casualisation of labour on board.

Mr. Kpoh expressed the assurance that when the new labour law is passed, there would be nothing like “permanent casuals” in industrial relations in Ghana again. Touching on the problem of payment of workers below the daily minimum wage under the guise of “ability to pay” by some private employers, the General Secretary said no employer in Ghana I legally allowed to pay below the minimum wage. If there is any worker in Ghana who is paid less than the government approved daily minimum wage, then, he should lodge a complaint at the Labour Department and also the workers under the ICU must report to the union’s regional offices or headquarters in Accra, he added.

Mr. Kpoh described the relationship between the ICU and the present government as one based on the principle of mutual respect in which case the interest of both parties are taken into account in discussions to arrive at a meaningful consensus. He cited that the government involved the ICU in the formulation of policies that affected the interest of its members, saying that, the President’s Special Initiatives (PSI) were some of the instances.

The General Secretary said a government, which regard the Trade Union, as a partner in economic and social development would definitely win the support of that Trade Union, so, “our relationship with the government is cordial,” he added.