I have read avalanche of improper handlings of workers at foreign companies in Ghana with heavy heart. But what I have read for the past few days is peerless considering its magnitude of cruelty and its level of heartlessness. A Lebanese by name, Jihad Chaaban decided to abuse a Ghanaian female worker by shoving her face into a bowl of blended hot pepper over a reason that the blender was a source of noise pollution during the process. What an animalistic way of doing of things! It is as though, Mr. chabaan only saw her as an animal in human form because he could have spoken with her in a proper manner like what supposed to happened between an employer and his employee at Lebanon in a similar instance. A Ghanaian worker was slapped with a hot pizza in this country, nothing happened! A Ghanaian worker was chained to a container in his country of birth, once again nothing happened. As if that was all, foreigners abuse our labour act with impunity by sexually harassing female workers. And now shoving of faces in hot peppers? Something must happen! After this merciless act, Marwako restaurant issued a statement condemning the act of the worker and apologizing unreservedly, and so what!? Please, we have taken note of your remorsefulness but justice must be served to serve as a precedent. This time around, I am hopeful that we are out to raise the bar with the leaders who are not ready to be compromised even with a pizza from Marwako!

This incident occurred because someone has never been crucified by the Ghanaian constitution. Somewhere last year, two cases of such caliber occurred. The CEO of Peterpan Restaurant, Young Gyu Lee, slapped a Ghanaian worker with a hot pizza. And his crime was this; he allegedly allowed the pizza to get burnt. And the other case was that another Ghanaian worker at Gateway Logistics Limited at Takoradi was chained to a container by an Italian supervisor by name Manlo Maggiorotto with a reason that the worker was allegedly contributing zero output to production by wasting precious time of economic value in loitering around in the company’s premises. In both of the aforementioned cases, reports were filed at the police station but in the end what did it produce? I am not sure something happened to any of the two people. As always, it was published on the various online news portals. Ghanaians became angry on Facebook by using hashtags with all the adjectives and exclamation marks but in the end, the victors were these two (Young and Manlo) miscreants and the vanquished were the poor Ghanaian workers. It is unfortunate that our constitution is such a toothless bulldog that is only instrumental at barking.

I don’t know whether he likened a human face to a ball of Banku and as such tried to ‘eat’ it with hot pepper or he was encouraged by the life in a country of partial laws. He was motivated by the act of the one who chose not to throw a burnt pizza into the dustbin but rather used it as an artificial hand in slapping a worker. He was motivated by the one who chained a worker to a container as though he was to be shipped across the transatlantic ocean like how slaves was chained during the era of the slave trade. I don’t see this foolishness acts stopping in the future if our constitution cannot take on Mr. Jihad as a sinner. In the case of the Peterpan Restaurant and the Gateway Logistics, the then Minister Of Labour And Employment said government was not going to hesitate in making those companies face the full rigors of the law, not only the Ghanaian law but in accordance with international conventions on labour, should such acts remain in existence. Haruna Iddrisu said “we are a signatory to all the respected ILO conventions that supports and promotes decent work and productive work environment; and the rights of workers will continuously be upheld by this government and all public institutions.” I am not sure this nice grammar yielded any result before his government kiss power goodbye. The laws must work and the abused worker in the center of this whole issue should serve justice and the consequence served as deterrent. It must be followed to the latter. The labour laws in Ghana must grow teeth now and start biting hard. Speaking of strange vocabulary must cease in the media regarding this matter for the abused worker is not interested in the one who is grammar grandiloquent but the one who can help her seek the justice denied her. She will trust new actions and not platitude!

WHAT ABOUT US?

It will be hypocritical on my part if I don’t say anything about the attitude of the Ghanaian towards work. We will never go to work early because we always consider that as a backstab on the time we set for ourselves and name it “Ghanaian time.” The sense of discipline at workplace is totally discouraging especially in the public service. Some workers are lazy at work. The labour act (act 651) we are crying out loud to come to our aid is not one that is excessively favouring the Ghanaian labour and excessively disfavouring his employer but a balance between the two. Every law comes with rights and obligations and same this law. Perhaps, an attitude towards work in the public service will not be tolerated in the private sector. A private business owner has competitors selling same product and so producing high quality products to capture a chunk of the market share is his target. You are employed but you unable to proof your efficiency and change totally your attitude towards work, what will happen? The management start having problems with you and if you continue on that trajectory, one day you will be pouring water from a bottle into a cup and a senior supervisor will think that you are a nuisance because you are making noise which obviously is not a genuine concern but a case of just being petty. I am not in any way justifying or condoning the draconian treatment meted out to the female worker but we should know that taking care of someone’s property as though it was yours is absolutely essential. I think boycotting the catering services of the restaurant will be tantamount to putting up a xenophobic attitude. There are still Ghanaians working there for salaries with a sole motive of keeping the souls and lives of their families together. Let’s crack the whip on the restaurant relative to the laws of the land so that the Ghanaians in that restaurant and in any other foreign establishment will be humanly treated well in the future, otherwise we will be throwing the baby away with the bathwater by the boycotting of their services!

Writer’s Email: alhassanandani98@gmail.com