Violation Of Rights of Ghanaian Workers By Foreign Employers

The contributions made by foreign employers toward the socio- conomic growth and development of Ghana are worthy of applause.

Undeniably,the living conditions of many a Ghanaian have improved as a result of they securing employment from foreigners.

However, the fly in the ointment
is the situation where the locals are increasingly subjected to abuses and human rights violations. 

Though less known, a great host of
Ghanaian employees are verbally, psychologically or even physically
abused by their foreign employers on a daily basis. As Ghana joined
other countries to commemorate World Precarious Workers Day on October 7, which is observed annually to highlight the plight of workers, a new study conducted by the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union of Ghana (ICU) revealed that foreign employers almost always abused their Ghanaian employees. 

The study cited Chinese, Indians and Lebanese as the worst abusers of workers rights. According to the General Secretary of the ICU,Solomon Kotei, the foreign employers violate Section 75 of the Labour Act 2003 (Act 651), the
International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 100, which demands equal renumeration for equal work, as well as ILO Convention 111, which abhors discrimination in employment and occupation. Reported cases of locals being abused and mistreated by their foreign superiors abound, be it in the formal or informal sectors of the economy. 

A case in point is a study by the Labour Research and Policy Institute of the Trades Union Congress, which reported of widespread abuse of the rights of Ghanaian Workers during the construction of the Tamale and Essipong stadia. 

The study further captured the situation where Chinese were highly abusive towards their Ghanaian construction workers at the Bui Dam site. In the mining sites which are usually managed by foreigners, the violation of the rights of their Ghanaian counterparts is common place. 

It was reported that over three thousand (3000) employees of Goldfields Ghana Limited, Tarkwa and Damang Mines both threatened to go on strike due to racial discrimination, cheating and disregard to their welfare. 

They said the Ghanaian workers where housed in dilapidated houses while the foreigners where housed in well established mansions. They also said the mines gym, club and
restaurant were restricted to only the foreigners. The worrying aspect of these violations of Ghanaian workers rights is that, most of these cases, particularly the ones that happen on a small scale are not usually brought to the public attention. 

The question that arises is,why do these foreigners abuse their Ghanaian subordinates? In fact,
one major cause of this problem stems from the high unemployment rate in the country. 

Due to this menace, the foreigners take advantage of the situation to do anything to their employees without any sense of civility. The Ghanaian workers in this traumatic situation will rather stay in an abusive working environment than to stand up for their rights and subsequently get sacked. 

Interestingly, in this situation,
the abused Ghanaian employee will rather want to be a ''well fed
slave than to be a hungry free man''. Secondly, many foreigners face a lot of pressure as a result of the economic climate and so, in an attempt to off load this pressure, the poor Ghanaian employees are unfortunately the victims. 

This mostly happens in the form of verbal abuse where hostile and unethical communication is directed towards these Ghanaian workers. Moreover, the culture of fear among Ghanaian workers has given these foreigners the impudence to continue these
unwarranted behaviours in that, the Ghanaian worker, out of fear of being suspended, heavily sanctioned or even fired do not report these cases of abuse. 

Some Ghanaians and foreigners alike are ignorant of the labour Acts and so do not know their rights and responsibilities.

Also, some of these foreigners naturally do not respect the rights of
other people and so as long as you are their subordinates you are
doomed to abuse. There are various forms of rights violations including but not limited to unpaid salaries or wages, sexual
harassment, excessive working hours without corresponding payments and the continuous keeping employees as casual workers. 

The latter is the situation where foreign employers with the intention of depriving
their Ghanaian employees of certain benefits such as medical facility, pension scheme, sick leave, among others usually hire staff on a temporary basis. 

Though these casual or temporary employees are being made to perform the same tasks as the so-called permanent colleagues who earn higher income. This is pure injustice and it must immediately
be halted. 

To address this, the Government through the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations must ensure that the laws and regulations of the land are respected and adhere to and those found guilty of non-compliance must be sanctioned accordingly.

Organisational leadership plays the most important part in the
prevention of these abuses by enforcing decency, civility and high ethical standards. The Trades Union Congress and the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union must ensure that the provisions in the
National Labour Act are enforced particularly the one which stipulates that casual workers are regularised as permanent workers after continuous six months of engagement.

Workers unions should also educated their members on their rights and responsibilities. Media
practitioners has a role to play in highlighting more on abuses
through advocacy and education.

Foreign employers should not only
think about the economic aspect of their business but they should also look at the human rights aspect of it so that they can get the best out of their Ghanaian employees.

BY: ZEPHANIAH KWESI DANAA, JOURNALIST