Accra, Nov. 25, GNA - Traders have been asked to desist from insulting customers during business transactions and adopt excellent customer relations to maintain them.

Mr David Kwabla Dorkenoo, Principal, Ghana Labour College, noted that customers who are often insulted during transaction shunned traders, saying their conduct undermined productivity. "You have to adopt decent language whenever you transact business with a buyer; you don't need to castigate someone if he or she does not buy your product you should aim at satisfying them," he said. According to Mr. Dorkenoo some customers were very "notorious" and urged traders to exercise restraint when dealing with them. Mr. Dorkenoo was addressing a day's seminar dubbed: "Decent Work, Decent Life for Women" held in Accra for 20 women drawn from various market associations in the Greater Accra Region.

The workshop organized by the International Trades Union Congress in collaboration with the Ghana Trades Union Congress aimed at involving women at the national level on the social ladder.

Topics to be discussed include Freedom of Association, Social Dialogue/ Negotiation, as well as Accessibility of Micro Credit. Mr Dorkenoo noted that women dominated in the informal sector and hence the need to educate them on the importance of decent work as well as promote productivity. He said as part of the decent work, women were obliged to communicate well with customers and ascertain their needs to maintain them and attract more. On the upsurge of fire outbreaks in the various markets, Mr Dorkenoo appealed to traders to save so that they could depend on those monies in case of any disaster.

He informed the traders about the existence of a pilot project scheme introduced by Social Security and National Insurance Trust to support the informal sector and appealed to them to join the scheme. On their health, he asked the traders to enrol in the National Health Insurance Scheme not forgetting their wards and their workers. Mr. Dorkenoo tasked them to go into the various markets as way of involving workers in the informal sector so that there could better understanding and acceptance of the scheme. Madam Nadi Ibrahimah, Head of Women Desk, TUC, Ghana, emphasized the need for the traders to engage in social dialogue and negotiation since those could bring industrial peace and ensure consensus building. She urged them to get involved in issues concerning them instead of allowing their male counterparts to take decisions which affect them. She reminded the traders to adopt disputes resolutions mechanisms such as the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) which was cheaper, faster and convenient way of resolving issues.