The Secretary-General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Kofi Asamoah, has observed that workers’ rights are being trampled on with impunity despite the existence of Labour laws and constitutional provisions guaranteeing workers’ and human rights.

He made the statement prior to launching a manual on case studies of the decent work situation in three selected countries in West Africa.

According to the United Nations International Labour Organisation (ILO) decent work encompasses opportunities for “productive work in which rights are protected, which generate adequate income with adequate social protection’.

Despite the acclaimed correlation between economic growth and the creation of decent employment, the majority of workers in West Africa are trapped in employment forms that lack all the attributes of decency.

Kofi Asamoah said the launch is yet another landmark in the annals of the TUC, and that the report contributes in bringing to the fore some of the challenges trades unions in Ghana have faced since the “onslaught of free market forces”.

Most countries have ratified ILO conventions that are necessary for the promotion of decent work. Yet, the decent work situation in the sub-region is weak and getting worse, the report states.

Prince Asafu-Adjaye, a co-author of the research manual said the three West African countries sampled were: Sierra Leone’s construction sector because of the reconstruction effort after the civil war; Burkina Faso’s mining sector since it is the largest contributor to Burkina’s GDP; and Ghana’s financial services sector because in recent times the services sector, including financial services, has become an important source of economic growth in the country.

One of the key components of the ILO decent work agenda is fair income. However, none of the participants reported gross pay below the minimum national wage. The study revealed some relationship between trade union availability and higher gross pay.

However, females reported higher income inequality, and using the Gini co-efficient the ratio was pegged at 0.30-0.36 compared to male counterparts.

Ghana’s labour laws state that overtime should be voluntary; however, 70% of said overtime is compulsory to make the enterprise profitable. 94% indicated they have access to social protection while only 6% said they don’t. Ideally, social security should be 100%!

Seventy nine percent said they were covered by collective bargaining agreements but only 62% reported they had copies of the agreement.

Commenting on the recommendations, Prince Asafu-Adjaye noted that job satisfaction has been identified with improved worker performance -- and for that matter, improved productivity. Therefore, given the low level of job satisfaction reported by the study, financial services sector enterprises were urged to take steps to address the barriers to job satisfaction.

Also, from the government’s perspective, some violations of workers’ rights can be attributed to weaknesses of state institutions mandated to ensure compliance and enforcement of labour regulations.

The Labour Research and Policy Institute undertook the research in collaboration with the Trade Union Solidarity Centre of Finland (SASK). Both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies were employed with a small sample size of 50 participants, which was described as a limitation.