The National Labour Commission (NLC) has urged employers and employees in Ghana to follow due process in settling labour-related disputes.

A statement signed by Mr Ofosu Asamoah, Executive Secretary of the NLC, congratulating all Ghanaian workers on the occasion of the May Day celebration on Tuesday, 1 May, said: “On such an occasion, it is important to remind both the workman (workers) and capital employers (employers) on the need to strengthen their relationship through social partnership and to improve upon their communication through social dialogues, as this is an effective means to ensure a peaceful industrial relations environment for the promotion of investments and the creation of sustainable jobs.

“As an institution, the NLC is aware of the many challenges that confront and continue to confront workers and employers in the employment relation, and managing, handling and settling industrial disputes.

“However, we are of the firm believe that if parties in the relationship commit themselves to due process in the internal management of grievances and also ensure cooperation in terms of industrial disputes, we can maintain some peaceable level of industrial stability both at the enterprise level and the country as a whole.”

Below is a copy of the statement:

The National Labour Commission (NLC) salutes all workers of the Republic of Ghana on the occasion of the 2018 May Day celebration.

The Commission joins thousands of well-wishers both within and outside the country to congratulate the gallant and hardworking people of Ghana both in the formal and informal sectors of the economy, and to acknowledge their contributions to national development.

On such an occasion it is important to remind both the workman (workers) and capital employers (employers) on the need to strengthen their relationship through social partnership and to improve upon their communication through social dialogues, as this is an effective means to ensure a peaceful industrial relations environment for the promotion of investments and the creation of sustainable jobs.

As an institution, the NLC is aware of the many challenges that confront and continue to confront workers and employers in the employment relation and managing, handling and settling industrial disputes.

However, we are of the firm believe that, if parties in the relationship commit themselves to due process in the internal management of grievances and also ensure cooperation in terms of industrial disputes, we can maintain some peaceable level of industrial stability both at the enterprise level and the country as a whole.

As the saying goes ‘conflict is inevitable’, therefore, what is important is how a conflict is managed such that, does not negatively affect the relationship, the community and society at large.

The struggle by workers for recognition, started with the demand for shorter working hours but today we have moved beyond that to the recognition of labour as an important resource in their attachment of both organisation goals and national development.

This clearly shows that, with effective cooperation, goodwill and good faith we can ass social partners in the employment relationship go very far in this all very important relationship.

The NLC wishes to remind both employers and workers to go back to one of the important principles that underlines the promulgation of Labour Act 2003 (ACT 651) that there shall be an independent arbiter who shall facilitate the settlement if industrial disputes and also adju9dacte industrial dispute fairly, justly and expeditiously such that at the end of the day both parties will be satisfied because their needs have been addressed.

Thirty years into the work of the NLC, commitment by the social partners to the dispute settlement processes range between 60 to per cent, thus posing a major challenge to the work of the commission in ensuring a peaceful industrial relations environment for investment, job creation, investment protection and job sustainability.

Therefore, as we congratulate our dear workers, on this very special we also used the opportunity to urge both labour management to review your stance and commit to the processes of both grievance handling at the enterprise level and settlement of disputes at the National Labour Commission.

We wish you the very best in the coming year and pray that the good Lord will bless the works of your hands so that together as employers and workers we shall rip the fruit of our labour while also contributing to national development.