Labour Commission Cries for Financial Support

The Executive Secretary of the National Labour Commission (NLC), Mr. Ofosu Asamoah, has called on government to provide the Commission with funds to enable it execute its functions.

Speaking at the Organized Labour Forum held in Accra yesterday he said its legal department is unable to enforce decisions of the commission due to the absence of funds for filing cases in court.

According to him, the Commission has over 200 cases to work on but it has no resources to do so.

“We lack both financial, material, and human resources.  The commission has not been properly resourced. By law we are supposed to do all services of cases brought to us within three days, but we are not able meet the time line,” he stressed.

The NLC, formed to facilitate the settlement of industrial disputes, had its eight member board inaugurated by government in May this year.

However, the board, according to Mr. Asamoah has not been taken through orientation due to lack funds.

“We had our commission sworn in about six weeks ago properly there should be an orientation where they would be taken through the process of ruling and judgement writing and decisions. For lack of finances we have not been able to do all this but they have begun their work,” he said.

He also mentioned that the Commission lacks office space, and has only two motor-bikes which are outmoded, used for monitoring across the country.

On his part, Dr. Anthony Yaw Baah, the General Secretary of the Trade Union Congress reiterated the need for government to provide the commission with funds.

According to him, there would be more disputes with the introduction of the One District One Factory initiative, hence need for government to provide the NLC with funds to secure offices across the country.

“They need offices around the country to solve labour disputes. If indeed we are going to have one district one factory, what it means is that there would be more disputes and so there need to be more offices,” he said

He opined that Commission should be allowed to generate funds internally.

The objective of the forum was to create a platform for leaders of Organized Labour and the newly-appointed Chairman and members of the Commission to interact and discuss how they can work together to settle industrial disputes.

It was attended by union leaders and members from 30 unions that constitute Organized Labour, Chairman and members of National Labour Commission; the Executive Secretary, and Senior staff of the NLC.

By: Emmanuel Yeboah Britwum