TUC urges employers to allow workers to operate from home …to minimise interactions at workplaces
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is urging employers to grant leave to workers who need to be home to take care of their children following the close down of schools due to the COVID-19 scourge in the country.
President Akufo-Addo addressing the nation on Sunday directed that all “universities, senior high schools and basic schools, both public and private, be closed on Monday, March 16, till further notice.”
With the exception of BECE and WASSCE candidates who were permitted to attend school in preparation for their final examination, all others were to be home as the Ministries of Education and Communication collaborate to roll out distance learning programmes.
In a statement signed by its Secretary General, Dr Yaw Baah, on the back of the announcement on Monday, the TUC appealed to employers to be considerate to their staff under the circumstance until schools re-open.
“We would also like to appeal to employers to allow workers who can work from home to do so as a means of minimising interactions at workplaces,” it urged.
The TUC, whilst entreating workers to rely only on official sources of information on the disease, encouraged “all unions to work closely with their employers to put in place the necessary measures or arrangements to ensure that workers are fully protected from this deadly virus.”
“We appreciate the effort government is making to protect all Ghanaians and foreign residents in the country, but we would like to draw government’s attention to the prisons, because we all know that our prisons are overcrowded,” it added.
Ghana has so far recorded six cases of COVID-19, all being imported cases. According to the government, five of the cases were recorded in Accra with one other, recorded in Obuasi in the Ashanti Region.
In confronting the pandemic, the President has banned all public gatherings for the next four weeks to prevent further spread of the disease.
The gatherings include conferences, workshops, funerals, festivals, political rallies, sporting events and religious events such as services in churches and mosques though others like private burials could proceed, but not exceeding 25 people in attendance.
Whilst insisting that governments travel advisory issued earlier be observed, the President stated that “businesses and other workplaces can continue to operate but should observe prescribed social distancing between patrons and staff.”
BY TIMES REPORTER
