The Deputy Commissioner at the National Labour Commission (NLC) has lamented about the employment terminations referring to it as unfair.
Following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, about 48 per cent of employees have been unfairly terminated from their jobs.
Rose Karikari Annan indicated that the law demands that a notice of termination must be given a month or 3 weeks.
“In the labour law, there is termination and then, there is unfair termination. If you look at the cases coming to the NLC, unfair termination constitutes about 48 per cent of them.”
She emphasized that this has mostly not been adhered to and must be addressed.
“And there is this erroneous impression that you have the right to hire and fire at will. How do you get to work and your boss says you have been fired? This has been the case and must stop.”
She expressed her worry while speaking at Joy Business’ roundtable on the impact of Covid-19 pandemic and employment.
It has been noted that one major challenge befallen government when it comes to the exact number of job losses in both the informal and formal sector has been the absence of available data.
However, the Deputy Minister of Employment, Bright Wireko-Brobbey has assured that data covering COVID- 19 related jobs losses would be ready in two weeks.
“We need to know the numbers. We are doing a holistic survey in both sectors to come up with a clear job-loss analysis in two weeks’ time.”
The participants in the discourse made a call to government to review some sections of the Labour Act to address unfair termination. They also pushed for a possible review to address the part of the Act which does not serve their purpose in these Covid-19 era.
Meanwhile, President of the Employers Association of Ghana, Alex Frimpong has called on employers to be forthcoming with reports on lay-offs.
