Ghana

Kinaphama Limited, a pharmaceutical giant in Ghana, locked out hundreds of its workers for electing to form a union within the company. The workers demonstrated against management of the company on Thursday 28 June 2018 for locking them out of its premises.

According to the angry workers, management of the company has vehemently opposed their demands to form a union to address welfare issues. As part of the lockout lockout A form of industrial action whereby an employer refuses work to its employees or temporarily shuts down operations. , the workers allege that management of the company has advertised their positions as vacant instead of addressing their concerns.
“Normally, when you negotiate a condition of service, the next thing is to be signed, but surprisingly at the standing negotiating committee level, the matter was discussed and concluded but for whatever reason, when the document was given to the chief executive officer, he started to renegotiate the items. Upon briefing them, the workers started protesting, which led management to lock them out,” a worker said in an interview on Accra radio station Citi FM.

IndustriALL Global Union, on a mission to Ghana, called for dialogue with Ghana Gold Fields to reverse the decision to retrench 2,150 workers at Tarkwa mine and a further 340 workers at Damang Mine.
Ghana Gold Fields, a major mining company in Ghana, is retrenching and rehiring the same workers on contract.
According to the Ghana Mine Workers Union (GMWU), the union organised a general strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike , during which the military beat up peacefully demonstrating workers at Tarkwa.
The union reveals in addition that Gold Fields wants to select “on a case-by-case basis and recommend those branch union executives with appropriate conduct and without health issues to the contractors executing the contract mining at Tarkwa mine for potential employment”.
During the mission to Ghana, IndustriALL general secretary Valter Sanches and Paule France Ndessomin, regional secretary for Sub Saharan Africa, met with the deputy minister of employment and labour relations, Bright Wireko-Brobbey, who is involved in the dispute as an observer. The minister says a commission will be set up to investigate working conditions under precarious work.

The military used tear gas, pepper spray and fired warning shots to violently disperse peacefully demonstrating mine workers at the Tarkwa Mine of Goldfields.
Tension began to rise after the management of Goldfields is said to have brought in armed military men to ensure that workers collect termination letters as part of its exercise to change the business model from an “Owner Mine” to a “Contract Mine”.
In the morning before the incident, which occurred on 13 March 2018, the deputy general secretary of the Ghana Mine Workers Union addressed the workers, asking them to remain peaceful at the gates of the mine while they got the management of the mine, led by Alfred Baku, to sit with the Ghana Mine Workers Union’s (GMWU) leadership.
It was reported that the military marched on the peaceful demonstration when the workers refused to be addressed by the municipal chief executive of the Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipality, Gilbert Kennedy Asmah, after he had visited the scene of the protest (Forecourt of Tarkwa Goldfields). The military forces chased and hit workers with batons. One of the workers was hit by a bullet and had to be rushed to the nearest hospital by the union leadership.

Despite having secured substantial fiscal incentives under the Development Agreement signed with the government of Ghana by Gold Fields Ghana Limited in 2016, at the end of 2017 the company announced its decision to move from owner mining to contract mining, and to retrench the majority of its workforce at its Tarkwa and Damang mines. Although in case of planned redundancies both the collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
agreement signed by Gold Fields as well as the Labour Act of Ghana oblige the company to provide detailed information to trade unions as to the reasons and the exact number of all affected workers and to consult with trade unions on alternatives to redundancies and mitigation tactics, no meaningful consultations have taken place. Gold Fields failed to respond to arguments raised by the Trades Unions Congress (TUC) and Ghana Mining Workers Union (GMWU) that questioned the substance of economic reasons given by the company to justify the move to the contract mining model and mass retrenchments. Moreover, at the end of December 2017, Gold Fields unexpectedly raised the number of retrenched workers from previously communicated 1,500 to 2,150 out of the total workforce of 2,516. So far, Gold Fields has not consulted with the unions regarding any alternative or mitigation measures.

Since 2015, workers of Mantrac had been trying to join the Ghana Mine Workers Union (GMWU) and leave the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU). Workers first presented their resignation letters to the ICU in August 2015. Mantrac management continued to deduct their union dues and transfer them to the ICU until in 2016 workers embarked on a two-hour strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike , leading to the dismissal of 69 workers. On 10 January 2017, workers re-sent their resignation letters by DHL post to the ICU, with a copy to Mantrac management, the GMWU and to the National Labour Commission. However, on 24 May workers received their May salary slips which again indicated deduction of ICU fees. The GMWU condemned the impunity of Mantrac and highlighted the management’s tactics of using workers’ legitimate protests as pretext for dismissals. The GMWU announced its taking the case back to the National Labour Commission.

On 28 February 2017, TV3 Company Limited handed notification of immediate disciplinary dismissal to 32 of its workers – trade union members - for taking part in “illegal industrial action industrial action Any form of action taken by a group of workers, a union or an employer during an industrial dispute to gain concessions from the other party, e.g. a strike, go-slow or an overtime ban, or a lockout on the part of the employer. ” by wearing red bands to work. TV3 accused workers of unfair labour practice, intimidation of the management, gross misconduct aimed at disrupting the business of the company and bringing the company into disrepute. The same day heavy police escort called on by the management expelled dismissed workers from the company’s premises. The management of TV3 and the workers had been in long drawn-out negotiations on end-of-service benefits for staff. The last meeting took place on 7 February, and the management has refused to negotiate since then. The Public Services Workers Union of TUC Ghana condemned the dismissal of the workers and announced a series of pickets at the premises of TV3 to take place in April.

In August 2016, the management of Matrac Ghana dismissed around 70 workers because they withdrew from the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) and affiliated to the Ghana Mine Workers Union (GMWU). Following the dismissal, the workers had the possibility to apply for their previous jobs only if they agreed to sign an obligation forbidding them to engage in a strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike for a period of 6 months. The issue was addressed by the National Labour Commission, which on 14 December 2016 decided that the workers could re-submit their resignation letters from the ICU. The management reacted by threatening workers with another wave of dismissals.

On 26 September 2016, 13 workers of the Ghana National Gas Company were dismissed and 32 were suspended for engaging in a strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike organised by the local branch of the General Transport, Petroleum and Chemical Workers’ Union (GTPCWU) to protest against bad working conditions and insufficient occupational safety in the company. On 14 September, only a few days before these dismissals and suspensions occurred, the Company had pledged to avoid discriminatory behaviour against protesting workers during a meeting with the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, thus breaking its word shortly after.

Goodwill Ceramics Company - a Chinese construction company located at Ehyiamu in Sekondi Takoradi - dismissed over 180 Ghanaian workers for engaging in a strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike against poor working conditions. Protesting workers were suffering forced overtime, long working hours, lack of basic protective equipment (such as gloves and helmets) as well as unfair dismissals. Immediately after the strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike , the management informed all the participating workers of their dismissal, which took effect the next day.

On 26 January 2016, the Veterinary Medical Technicians Association of Ghana (VEMTAG) started a nationwide strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike action. The collective action lasted more than one month, affecting veterinary services at airports, harbours, borders, quarantine stations, laboratories, clinics, slaughterhouses, slaughter slabs, vaccine production units and abattoirs. It was VEMTAG’s response to the failure of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) to accord them their market premium since Ghana introduced the Single Spine Salary Structure in 2011. Since the commencement of the veterinaries’ grievances, the attitude of FWSC was anything but conciliatory: in fact, the Commission boycotted a meeting organised by the National Labour Commission (NLC) in order to try to mediate the controversy. It was only when VEMTAG had no further option that they decided to call a strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike . Following this initiative, VEMTAG President, Mr. Emmanuel Eshun, was transferred outside Accra and removed from his post in the capital city.

Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) declared a nationwide strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike beginning Monday, January 18, 2016, to mount pressure on the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) to address the salary gap between junior and senior staff in public universities. This was not the first action of TEWU; the union called off a similar strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike in September 2015, which was followed by assurances from FWSC that the problem would have been resolved. But the pay-gap due to the implementation of the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) in 2010 remained, and workers had no choice but to call another strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike . In response to TEWU’s action, the National Labour Commission (NLC), declared the strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike illegal and ordered the striking workers to go back to work if they didn’t want to be sanctioned. Therefore, those members of the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) that refused to go back to work had to face sanctions from their employers as directed by the NLC. The Ghanaian Legal framework regulating the right to strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike is impressively restrictive, in fact according to Section 168.4 of the Labour Act No.651 of 2003 “a worker who takes part in an illegal strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike may have his or her services terminated by the employer without notice for breach of his or her contract of employment or may forfeit his or her remuneration in respect of the period during which he or she is engaged in the illegal strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike .”

Chinese Sentuo Steel Company denies its workers the right to associate and join trade unions. The company management has also misled the Labour union that tried to investigate on the conditions of work, granting that the person with the lowest salary at the company was being paid 1,500 Ghana GHS (345 EUR) while in reality the monthly wages are not higher than 400 GHS (91 EUR) per month. The management failed to increase the wages for the past three years and didn’t implement some essential bonuses and incentives such as risk allowance.

On 27 January 2015, workers at Crown Cans Ghana Limited specialised in the manufacturing of metal packaging for the food industry staged a protest in front of the company gate. Management had, without any preliminary notice, closed the gate. The only information given was a piece of paper left at the gate saying “factory shut until further notice” and undersigned in smaller letters “management”.
For three years the Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union (ICU) had encountered a number of difficulties in organising organising The process of forming or joining a trade union, or inducing other workers to form or join one. its activity in the factory, as well as tough resistance from management. When the union finally succeeded in organising organising The process of forming or joining a trade union, or inducing other workers to form or join one. workers, the company management in retaliation dismissed all the initial union executives. Later, Crown Cans refused to negotiate with the ICU and unilaterally announced the closure of the factory. The union submitted the case to the National Labour Commission (NLC) and as a result Crown Cans was forcedly instructed to negotiate with ICU representatives. Eventually Management, negotiating in bad faith, informed the union that they would have been ready to negotiate only after the removal of the machinery and equipment from the factory. Understandably – based on previous negative experiences – the ICU rejected the proposal. Following the failed negotiation NLC requested the two parties to select mediators/arbitrators to enable dialogue. Only the ICU complied with NLC’s request while the enterprise refused to name a mediator and instead brought cranes into the factory to remove the machinery and equipment.

In response to a legitimate strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike held by Ghanaian public workers, on 16 December 2014 a Labour Court presided by Justice Saeed Kwaku Gyan issued an interlocutory injunction injunction A court order prohibiting or preventing a certain course of action, such as calling or continuing with a strike. restraining 12 public workers from embarking on further actions because they could be in breach of the provision on essential public services, threatening national interest. The president of the Court stated that there is no constitutional provision guaranteeing the right to strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike and therefore no further collective action can be recognised and protected on legal grounds.
The Court issued the injunction injunction A court order prohibiting or preventing a certain course of action, such as calling or continuing with a strike. because of a two-week strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike started on 21 October 2014, organised by different public workers’ trade unions: Health Services Workers Union, Ghana Registered Nurses’ Association, Ghana Medical Association, Ghana Physician Assistants’ Association, Government and Hospital Pharmacists’ Association, Ghana Association of Certified Registered Anaesthetists, Ghana National Association of Teachers, Teachers and Educational Workers’ Union, National Association of Graduate Teachers, Civil and Local Government Staff Association and Judicial Service Staff. The strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike was called against the unilateral decision of Ghanaian government to entrust a private firm – namely Pension Alliance Trust – to manage the pensions funds. Such decision was in breach of the law that in Section 141 (1) and (2) and in other provisions of the National Pensions Act No.766 of 2008 recognise the right of public workers to choose trustees and fund managers to manage their Tier Two Pension funds, while the government completely excluded them from the decision.

When workers on the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah embarked on an industrial action industrial action Any form of action taken by a group of workers, a union or an employer during an industrial dispute to gain concessions from the other party, e.g. a strike, go-slow or an overtime ban, or a lockout on the part of the employer. 29 October 2014 and were relocated onshore, other workers were hired to replace them. The workers were demanding better conditions of service in the face of huge pay disparity between them and expatriate workers offering the same services. An agreement was reached between the company and the union resulting in a Memorandum of Understanding ensuring that workers would be able to go back to their previous positions. However, this became a challenge when the company dismissed 27 workers who had participated in the strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike . Their termination for embarking on an illegal strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike was reversed through a one-day sympathy strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike and subsequent negotiations. The affected leaders are receiving all conditions of service but have not been sent back onto the FPSO.

Despite a decision by the National Labour Commission, the Merchant Bank Ghana failed to reinstate Jonas Koranteng-Smart.

The Financial, Business and Services Employees Union (FBSEU) submitted the rules and constitution of its Standing Negotiating Committee to the Parliamentary Service Board. The Parliamentary Service Board refused however to register the rules and constitution arguing that workers of the Parliamentary Service did not have the right to join a union. The FBSEU petitioned the National Labour Commission which then asked both parties to sign the rules within 21 days. The Parliamentary Service Board failed to comply with the order and hence the Commission filed an enforcement process in the High Court. The matter is before the courts.

The members of the General Transport, Petroleum and Chemical Workers Union (GTPCWU) in the Western Region have been harassed and mistreated by foreign oil service companies.

These companies do not want their workers to unionise and are trying to prevent them from joining a trade union using intimidation and even dismissal.

Some companies like African Oil Field Services, have refused to sign a verification form to enable the workers in that company to join a trade union. Abraham Harrison Afful, one of the leaders of the workers, advocating for unionisation of the workers was dismissed without any tangible reasons.

Fifteen workers at Mobicrane Limited, an oil and gas service provider based in Takoradi, have been dismissed for allegedly attempting to join the General Transport and Petroleum and Chemical Workers Union (GTPCWU) in order to gain bargaining power to negotiate with the company for better service conditions.

Jonas Koranteng-Smart from the Union of Industry, Commerce and Finance Workers (UNICOF) affiliated to the Ghana Trades Union Congress was dismissed on 5 June 2012 for sending an email to unionised staff about the discussions of the 38^th Annual General Meeting of the Merchant Bank Ghana.

Fifteen workers at Mobicrane Limited, an oil and gas service provider based in Takoradi, were dismissed in February 2013 for attempting to join the General Transport and Petroleum and Chemical Workers Union.

Some employers in the export processing zones (EPZ export processing zone A special industrial area in a country where imported materials are processed before being re-exported. Designed to attract mostly foreign investors by offering incentives such as exemptions from certain trade barriers, taxes, business regulations, and/or labour laws. ) have persistently resisted the unionisation of their employees, despite the protection provided by the 2003 Labour Act. Blue Skies Products (Gh) Ltd (a subsidiary of Blue Skies Holdings UK), an EPZ export processing zone A special industrial area in a country where imported materials are processed before being re-exported. Designed to attract mostly foreign investors by offering incentives such as exemptions from certain trade barriers, taxes, business regulations, and/or labour laws. fruit processing company that employs over one thousand workers, has consistently refused to recognise its workers’ union the Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU).

Although freedom of association freedom of association The right to form and join the trade union of one’s choosing as well as the right of unions to operate freely and carry out their activities without undue interference.

See Guide to the ITUC international trade union rights framework is protected in law, in practice this is undermined by a 2008 decision of the Accra High Court concerning Ghana Telecommunications Limited (GT) to the effect that employers could hire and fire without giving any reasons for the termination of employment. Mr Kofi Asamoah, secretary general of Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC), warned at the 2009 May Day rally that some employers were using the ruling to get rid of so-called troublesome workers and unionists.