The Executive Secretary of the National Labour Commission (NLC), Mr Ofosu Asamoah, has reiterated the call on the government to make Commissioners full time to expedite the hearing of cases at the Commission.
He said full time commissioners would quicken the resolution processes to avoid the current delays in resolving most of the disputes.
He said “the Commission since its establishment in 2005 has received over 1.2 million complaints involving over five million complaints cumulatively out of which over 70 per cent have been heard and resolved.’’
The Executive Secretary made the call when members of the Economic and Social Development Committee of the Council of State met management members of the Commission in Accra yesterday.
The purpose of the meeting was to interact with officials of the Commission to learn about their daily activities.
Mr Ofosu said the weekly hearing of cases by the members of the Commission was inadequate to resolve the numerous cases brought before it.
He appealed to the government to absorb the cost of mediation and arbitration fees to promote expeditious resolution of industrial dispute taking into consideration the number of complaints received by the Commission.
He said currently the Commission was only visible in Greater Accra, Western and Ashanti, adding that plans were far advanced to open an office in the Northern Region this year.
He mentioned the lack of office space for staff, poor ventilation, lack of meeting room, lack of offices for members of the Commission, lack of a room for library and other reference materials as some of the challenges facing the commission.
The Chairman of the Committee, Paa Kofi Ansong, thanked the Commission for its accomplishments despite all the challenges, and for working hard to ensure the peaceful resolution of a number of landmark cases brought before it.
He recommended that the Commission should be organising seminars for Labour Unions to help address some of their concerns, as a way of minimising the rampant labour agitations.
Mr Ansong said looking at the scope of work the media did, it needed to also be enlightened on the intricacies of the Commission as a quaisal judicial body so that they could better explain to the public the Commission’s directives, and rulings when they were issued.
He underscored the important role of the NLC to the Ghanaian economy and called for support by the government and other stakeholders to make its work meaningful.
Mr Ansong assured the Commission of their support to help them achieve their goals.
A Former Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram, Mr Enoch Teye Mensah, called for a review of the law which established the Commission for effective operation.
BY ANITA NYARKO-YIRENKYI