Workers of Parliament to form local union as they salute Speaker for intervention
Workers of Parliament have commended the Speaker, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, and the Parliamentary Service Board for the manner in which they have resolved all the issues pertaining to the unionisation of the staff of Ghana’s lawmaking body.
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The workers started agitating for unionisation in 2007 under Speaker Begyina Sekyi Hughes but it stalled because of a number of disagreements between management and the staff.
As a result of the delay, the National Union of the Financial, Business and Services Employees Union (FBSEU) of the Ghana Federation of Labour (GFL) filed a petition at the National Labour Commission (NLC), which led to the directive from the NLC asking both the union and the parliamentary service to meet and sign the Standing Negotiating Committee Constitution to pave the way for negotiation for better conditions of service for the staff of the service.
When Parliament failed to comply with the directive, the NLC went to court to enforce its decision, which was duly granted by an Accra High Court (Labour Division) on July 27, 2014, but the parliamentary service once again failed to comply with the order of the court.
But to show his commitment to the fundamental human rights and freedom of association enshrined in the Constitution, the Speaker and the leadership of the Parliamentary Service took some bold decisions to bring closure to the protracted dispute over of the issue of unionisation.
Speaker writes to Clerk
In a memo dated July 26, 2016 and signed in his capacity as the Chairman of the Board to the Clerk to Parliament, the Speaker stated that “the fact that this matter has lingered as far back as 2007 when the FBSEU informed the Parliamentary Service of its intentions and in conformity with legal principle that it is necessary that the litigation must come to an end, I have decided that we should expedite action on resolving this matter so that our energies can be better deployed in resolving other pressing issues.”
He further directed the Clerk to take steps on behalf of the board to invite the FBSEU of the Ghana Federation of Labour for consultations and a review of the draft constitution of the Standing Negotiating Committee to reflect the concerns of the Board.
Parliament will respect lawful orders
“The Parliamentary Service cannot continue to indefinitely contravene the orders of the National Labour Commission, which are in conformity with the provisions of Article 24 of the 1992 Constitution, the Labour Act, 2003, Act 651 and the National Labour Commission Regulation 2006, LI 1822, that guarantees the right of every worker to join any trade union of his choice without restrictions.
“You are kindly requested to take immediate action on the above-stated directives and thereafter submit a report to me in compliance with Section 10 of the Parliamentary Service Act, 1993, Act 460, which provides that the Speaker shall, subject to the decision of the board, have ultimate responsibility for the administration, organisation and control of employees of the Service.”
These developments have been hailed by the workers and the leadership of the local union who have commended the Speaker for his initiative to seek the interest and welfare of his workers.
The General Secretary of the FBSEU of the GFL, Mr Benjamin Mingle, spoke to journalists and lauded the bold initiative of the Speaker to get the vexed issues in relation to the unionisation impasse amicably resolved.
