Director of Labor Research and Policy at TUC, Dr. Kwabena Nyarko Otoo, has intimated that the current labor situation in the country is one that is not good.
Speaking about employment and condition of workers in the country, he averred that the working conditions of workers are deteriorating and their pay also very low and unequal across board. He stated that it is important that these things are put in perspective and reflected on moving forward.
“I think we are not faring that good. Even before COVID-19, we know that good jobs were hard to come by. We just have about 2 million or so Ghanaians that have what we could describe as some decent form of employment of a workforce of over close to 12 million.”
Kwabena Nyarko Otoo
Dr. Otoo stated that the unemployment situation reflects that there is difficulty for people to get a job that can be described as a good job. He added that the situation also reflects the fact that in the last two years, COVID-19 has made the challenge in getting a job even more difficult. “We all know what happened during COVID. Workplaces got closed and many businesses have collapsed out of COVID-19.”
According to Dr. Otoo, the current employment issues reflect a failure on the part of the state to protect workers. He posited that the nation has a labor law that has a lot of loopholes indicating that there is a situation where the institutions that are supposed to enforce labor rights as enshrined in the law are so weak.
“They are poorly resourced to an extent that they are not able to enforce the laws. So, when you have this combination of scarcity of jobs and you have a law that is also weak in protecting workers, essentially what we have today is a labor market that has become an employer’s market with some employers dictating the pace and they are advocating for a right to hire and fire at work.”
Kwabena Nyarko Otoo
Employment and labor situation, dicey
Contributing to the discussion, Labor Consultant, Mr. Yiadom Boakye Amponsah, asserted that the employment and labor situation in the country is a very dicey one because there is a labor law that was negotiated between employers, government and then the workers.
However, he indicated that the key players who are the workers, do not have a direct influence in affairs with the labor act. He stated that due to this, employers now have a bigger say on how things are run and how employees should position themselves rather than the labor act favoring the two sides.
“I would have preferred that after the birth of this particular Labor act, the environment and the platform, should have been more flexible and accessible to all parties so that we could have actually held our chest high and say that yes, we did a good job.”
Yiadom Boakye Amponsah
Mr. Amponsah intimated that he would rather prefer a labor law that protects both the workers and employers and not one that overrides the other party. “I think that’s quite a challenge.”
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