Labour under threat: Ghanaians losing out on decent work - TUC

Ahead of the 2018 Labour Day celebrations popularly known as 'May Day', Labour Unions have expressed trepidations about the consistent dwindling fortunes of workers to realise the preferred standard of decency in the work they do.

According to the Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Dr. Yaw Baah, the heightened level of retrenchment and redundancy has forced most workers to accept casual less decent employment as opposed to permanent, dignifying work.  

Dr. Yaw Baah who was speaking at this year's organized Labour and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Pre-May Day Forum in Accra noted that the Ghanaian worker is constantly in a state of fear as to the security of his job within the short to medium term.

"If you go to work and your heart is in your hand every day, that's not decent work. You expect some security of tenure; and our worry is that even the two million people out of the thirteen million who have some decent work are being threatened with redundancy every day, " he said. 

The General Secretary of TUC therefore called on government and its relevant agencies to address the lapses in the labour laws which favour the indiscriminate layoffs of workers by their employers.

The forum brought together about 700 participants from the TUC and its affiliate national unions. 

The 2018 May Day Celebrations will be marked with the theme, "Sustainable Development Goals and Decent Work: The Role of Social Partners." 

Touching on what the national plan for achieving decent work, the Director General of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Dr. Grace Bediako emphasised that the framework for achieving decent work under the SDGs has been fully integrated into the national development agenda.  

She indicated that various sectors and agencies have mapped out plans for realising this objective for which the NDPC is committed to keenly monitoring progress. Dr. Bediako however stressed that the lack of timely and accurate data is hampering the proper assessment of the situation.

Decent work and the dignity of labour is the objective of Goal 8 of the Sustainable Development Goals. It has been described by Labour as the most critical element for achieving the rest of the 17 SDG goals and its 169 targets. 

It is observed that an empowered citizenry through the provision of decent work should be able to participate actively in the development process.  

The four main pillars of the decent work framework include employment, rights at work, social protection and social dialogue. 

STORY FILED BY: NANA AGYEMAN PREMPEH - GBC(RADIO GHANA). 

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