Union advocates agreement for media workers
The Media and Printing Industry Workers Union (MEDIANET) has called on the National Media Commission (NMC) to come out with an applicable scale agreement as a form of minimum labour standard in the media market.
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The MEDIANET also called on the NMC to compel all employers and publishers in the media sector to adhere to the provisions of the Labour Act 2003, Act 651, to the letter, to ensure the autonomy and independence of the media.
“This measure will create an underlying safety net for the majority of working media personnel and to eliminate the worst form of competition “, a statement signed by Charles Adjetey Sowah,the General Secretary of MEDIANET, and copied to the Ghana News Agency, in Accra, said.
It said the MEDIANET had come to the realisation that respect for workers right was a necessary precondition for achieving social justice at the workplace and in society.
The statement said: “it is only when workers are able to organise and bargain freely that they can claim a fair share and contribute to equity, consensus and cohesion in society and sustainable development”.
It said “Employment cannot be decent if workers cannot form or join trade unions of their choices to undertake collective bargaining to enable them to participate in decisions that affect them”.
The statement said the priority given to institutional and capacity building, the promotion of improved legislation and the implementation of various socio-economic policies against poverty were eluding the Ghanaian media and graphical industry with impunity.
It said the MEDIANET had taken the challenge to promote innovative ideas to consolidate human rights in the media landscape, and set up a platform for effective social dialogue.
The statement said the intervention was because many workers in the media sector had been engaged by media owners and Ghanaian publishers without written contracts.
Source: GNA