ICU wants stricter sanctions for abuse of workers right
 
The Industrial and Commercial Workers Union, ICU, has called for strict sanctions against employers who blatantly abuse the right of casual and contract workers. 

The Union said such abuses tend to deny casual and contract staff, their self-esteem, social insurance and protection and other benefits.  

According to the ICU, the rise in Outsourcing Agencies in recruiting workers has created fertile grounds for the violation of some provisions of the labour law which related to casual and contract work.
 
These were contained in a statement issued by the Acting General Secretary of the ICU, Mr. Morgan Ayawine, on the occasion of World Precarious Work Day. 

The day is observed annually on October 7, in solidarity with down trodden workers all over the world.  

The statement stated that, the destruction of standard or permanent employment has become the order of the day, where work is casualized or contractualized by employers to save cost and make abnormal profits at the expense of the workers. 

This, the statement noted, showed a classic example of labour exploitation which impoverishes the ordinary worker.
 
The Acting General Secretary of the ICU stated that as a panacea to halting the abuses of contract and casual workers' right, the Government of Ghana and other stakeholders should consider amending the Labour Act to provide for stricter sanctions against defaulters of the law. 

He also stressed the need to adequately resource both the National Labour Commission and the Labour Department to enable them to discharge their duties efficiently and effectively.
 
It reiterated ICU's commitment to continue the campaign for decent work, which by all standards ensured productive work, fair income, security at workplace and social protection for the family, equal opportunities and treatments, better prospects for personal development and social integration, participation in decision making, freedom of association and right to collective bargaining.

On the occasion of the World Precarious Work Day, the ICU called on government and employers all over the world especially in Ghana, to accord workers, on whose shoulders the economies of nations rest, some degree of dignity by desisting from short changing them in the form of employment destruction through casualization and contractualisation of work thus depriving them of their self-esteem, social insurance and protection and other social benefits.
 
The Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) Ghana, the largest heterogenous trade union organisation in Ghana which organises workers in the very fabric of the Ghanaian economy across Banks, Non-bank Financial Institutions, Insurance Companies, Hotel, Catering and Allied Undertakings, Retail and Commercial Undertakings, Paper and Printing Industries, Public Boards and Corporations, General Industries, Textile, Garment,  Leather and Fur, Pharmaceuticals, Metal and Automobile, Professional and Managerial Staff, Informal Economy and Tourism, Mining and Mining Services, Oil and Gas among others, said it cannot sit idle to watch workers rights violated with impunity.
 
The statement saluted gallant workers of Ghana who have sacrificed so much and continue to sacrifice to build a strong and prosperous nation.

GBC