Ashanti Region gets NLC office

Ashanti Regional Committee of the National Labour Commission (NLC), has been inaugurated.

Also inaugurated was the regional office of the Commission at Ahodwo, in Kumasi, which is expected to serve all the regions in the northern zone of the country until they get their own offices.

The three-member committee is made up of Mr Kwame Adom-Appiah, a lawyer and government appointee; Madam Georgina Yeboah, Head of Human Resource at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, representing employers and Madam Naomi Dedei Otoo, representing organised labour.

Among others, the committee is expected to settle labour disputes, investigate labour disputes and complaints and take steps to prevent labour disagreements.

They were sworn in by the Ashanti Regional Supervising High Court Judge, Justice Kofi Akrowiah, who advised them to shun politicisation of issues, saying that, “these days everything in the country has been politicised, which is not the best.”

He said labour commission was important in the development of the nation to ensure industrial harmony and facilitate economic transformation.

“You are, therefore, not supposed to be political, you should be non-personal, work passionately in the interest of the workers of the country,” he urged.

The Executive Secretary of the NLC, Mr Ofosu Asamoah, appealed to the players of the labour market to support the committee to achieve their objective.

He said in spite of financial constraints the Commission would work hard to give meaning to the labour Act 651 to strengthen and decentralise a feasible legal regime for the resolution of industrial disputes.

According to the chairman, the office in Kumasi was very important because of the industrial settings in the Ashanti Region, and that “every effort would be made to ensure equitable delivery of justice when it comes to employer-employee relations.”

Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei-Mensah, in a speech read on his behalf, urged the Commission to always ensure peace and harmony without any interference from any quarters to enable workers to have confidence in them.

Mr Andrew K. Asamoah, chairman, NLC noted that the Commission in Kumasi receives about 120 cases in a month, and if all such cases were to be forwarded to Accra for settlement, it would result in delays, and said the opening of the office in Kumasi was a right decision.

FROM KINGSLEY E.HOPE, KUMASI