Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2007, published 97th ILC session (2008)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Ghana (Ratification: 1965)

The Committee notes the Government’s report.

Article 2 of the Convention. Right of workers and employers to establish and join organizations of their own choosing without previous authorization. 
1. Managerial and executive staff. Previously, the Committee had requested the Government to amend section 79(2) of the Labour Act so as to ensure that workers performing managerial and decision-making functions maintain the right to establish and join organizations of their own choosing. Noting that the Government indicates that article 21(e) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana allows for freedom of association, including the freedom to form or join trade unions or other associations, national and international, for the protection of workers’ interests, the Committee once again requests that section 79(2) of the Labour Act be amended, in accordance with its previous comments and in alignment with the constitutional provision noted above.

2. Prison staff. Previously, the Committee had requested the Government to indicate the legal provisions ensuring that the staff of the prison service enjoy the right to set up and join organizations of their own choosing and, if there are no such provisions, to amend section 1 of the Labour Act – which exempts the prison service from the Act’s provisions – accordingly. The Committee notes the Government’s statement that, while no legal provisions set forth the right to organize of prison staff, the Prisons Service Council established under article 206 of the Constitution regulates the prison service’s activities and prison service staff have formed an association to protect and promote their interests. The Committee notes this information and requests the Government to amend section 1 of the Labour Act so as to ensure that the guarantees of the Labour Act apply to the staff of the prison service.

3. Right to establish and join organizations at the branch or industry level. The Committee had previously requested the Government to specify whether workers have the possibility to establish trade unions at the level of branch or industry, and to indicate any applicable provision in this respect. In this regard the Committee notes the Government’s statement that workers may establish trade unions at the branch or industry level as section 80(1) of the Labour Act allows two or more workers to form or join a trade union if they are in the same “undertaking”, which is defined under section 175 of the same act as “the business of any employer”. The Committee recalls that the free exercise of the right to establish and join unions implies the free determination of the structure and composition of unions, and that under Article 2 of the Convention workers have the right to establish organizations of their own choosing, including organizations grouping together workers from different workplaces. Noting that the Government has taken steps to notify the Sector Ministry (Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment) of the apparent discrepancy between the section concerned and the requirements of the Convention, the Committee asks the Government to amend section 80(1) of the Labour Act and to keep it informed of the measures adopted in this respect.

4. Right of employers to establish and join organizations of their own choosing. The Committee had previously requested the Government to amend section 80(2) of the same Act, so as to lift the requirement of employing at least 15 workers in order for an employer to establish or join an employers’ organization. Noting the Government’s indication that it would advise the Sector Ministry (Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment), in collaboration with the Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice, to set up a technical committee to examine section 80(2) of the Labour Act and take steps to amend it, the Committee requests the Government to keep it informed of the progress made in this regard.

Article 3. Right of workers’ organizations to organize their administration and activities and to formulate their programmes. The right to strike. 1. The Committee previously noted that sections 154–160 of the Labour Act contain no specific time limit within which mediation should be concluded, and requested the Government to complement the Labour Act by setting specific and not excessively long time limits within which mediation efforts should be concluded, so as not to unduly impede the possibility for workers to have recourse to lawful strikes for the defence of their occupational rights and interests. The Committee had also asked the Government to repeal section 160(2) of the Labour Act, so as to limit the possibility for the authorities to refer collective disputes to compulsory arbitration only to cases involving: (1) essential services in the strict sense of the term, and (2) public servants exercising authority in the name of the State. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that steps are being taken in collaboration with the Attorney-General to address these issues; it requests the Government to keep it informed of the steps taken to bring the legislation into conformity with the principle of the right to strike under Article 3 of the Convention.

2. The Committee had previously noted that section 163 of the Labour Act prohibits strikes in essential services, and had asked the Government to keep it informed of any instrument issued by the minister under section 175 of the Labour Act with a view to qualifying a particular service as essential, as well as any list of the specific services which are considered to be essential. In this regard the Committee notes that the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment has enacted the Labour Regulations 2007 (LI 1833), section 20 of which lists a number of services deemed to be essential. The Committee further notes that the list of essential services includes the following: sanitary services; air transport services; the supply and distribution of fuel, petrol, power and light; public transport services, ports and harbours security services; and the Bank of Ghana. The Committee considers that, although a prohibition on strikes in essential services is permissible under Article 3 of the Convention, these services are not essential in the strict sense of the term – i.e. services the interruption of which would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population (see General Survey of 1994 on freedom of association and collective bargaining, paragraph 159). The Committee recalls that, as an alternative to an outright prohibition on strikes, in order to avoid damages that are irreversible or out of proportion to the interests of the parties to a dispute, the authorities could establish a negotiated minimum service in case of strikes in these services. Such a service, the Committee further recalls, must genuinely be a minimum service – that is, one which is limited to the operations which are strictly necessary to meet the basic needs of the population or the minimum requirements of the service, while maintaining the strike’s effectiveness. Secondly, since this system restricts one of the essential means of pressure available to workers to defend their interests, their organizations should be able to participate in defining such a service, along with employers and the public authorities (see General Survey, op. cit., paragraphs 160 and 161). In these circumstances, the Committee requests the Government to amend section 20 of the Labour Regulations 2007 so as to remove the outright prohibition on strikes in the services noted above and, if it so wishes, to provide for a negotiated minimum service during strikes in these services, in accordance with the principles outlined above.